WC: Bracing for Hooligans

[SoccerPrime]

Bracing for Hooligans

By Mike Woitalla, Executive Editor

England is expected to have the largest contingent of supporters at the World Cup in Germany, with as many as 100,000 expected to journey across the channel. With them and fans traveling from other countries to the centrally located host country come fears of hooliganism.

About 3,500 English fans are banned from stadiums in their homeland and have been forced to surrender their passports. And World Cup organizers expect RFID-chip personalized ticket technology to help keep stadiums safe by preventing known hooligans to enter.

A German police database includes the names of 6,800 alleged German hooligans who can kept out of stadiums and be brought into custody if security forces deem them a threat during the tournament.

But there are concerns that hooligans will clash outside the stadiums, for example, at big-screen public viewing areas. Fewer than 10,000 English fans reportedly will enter the country with game tickets.

Because of nation's strong privacy laws, German politicians are debating the extent to which video surveillance should be used at the big-screen sites and other public areas.

That Germany drew Poland for first-round play has also causes concern. Last November, more than 50 Polish hooligans crossed the border into northeast Germany for a gang fight. In March of 2005, 40 German hooligans were arrested after rioting in Slovenia.

"We are liaising with neighboring countries - and with countries who have had a history of troublemakers, the Netherlands, England, even here in Germany," Christian Sachs, the German Interior Ministry spokesman, told the BBC.

The English police, who in the past have sent plainclothes officers to travel with fans, will likely be sending uniformed "bobbies" to Germany.

"They would offer a familiar presence and help increase communication with supporters," David Swift, the English police force's soccer disorder boss told The Guardian at the time of the proposal.

To prevent terrorist attacks, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has reportedly requested NATO to provide AWACS surveillance planes, which were used during the 2004 Olympics in Greece, to patrol the skies.

Schaeuble has also suggested the use of German military forces to aid police during the World Cup. But Germany's 57-year-old constitution bans the Bundeswehr from being deployed domestically. The strict separation between the military and police was written into the constitution in response to the Nazi regime's use of the military to create a police state.

Liberal and conservatives politicians have objected to Schaeuble's proposal.

Juergen Mathies, head of the World Cup's police deployment working group, told DW World, "The federal and state police are sufficiently prepared for the World Cup."

WELL-GROOMED POLICE. The German government has ordered its police force to spruce up for the World Cup, banning three-day stubble, pony-tails, visible tattoos, excessive jewelry, piercing that can be seen from afar, ear rings more than five millimeters long and other hairstyles "which may be perceived as an _expression of a marked individualist demeanor."

Police union chief (GdP), Konrad Freiberg, told the Hamburger Abendblatt that German cops look fine already and, "We really have other problems associated with the World Cup. We have a summer ban on vacations for police, high expectations, decreased Christmas bonuses, longer work hours, and now they want them all to look the same. Of course that invites criticism."

[rabble-rabble]

Originally Posted by SoccerPrime

WELL-GROOMED POLICE. The German government has ordered its police force to spruce up for the World Cup, banning three-day stubble, pony-tails, visible tattoos, excessive jewelry, piercing that can be seen from afar, ear rings more than five millimeters long and other hairstyles "which may be perceived as an _expression of a marked individualist demeanor."

Guess that counts me out!! 🙂

[prk166]

I'm suprised that they would be getting away with piercings, stuble, pony tails and stuff regardless of the world cup. Is the press just having fun with that announcement are is normal to be strolling around a place like Hamburg or Dussledorf and see a male cop with a pony tail?