German and Polish hooligans will present the biggest risk of violence at the World Cup finals in Germany, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a newspaper interview on Monday.
”The biggest problem we have is with German hooligans. We must not place the blame on neighbouring countries,” Schaeuble told Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.
”However, it is true that Poland has a hooligan problem. We are working with the Polish authorities. Our cooperation is going so well that I will attend the match between our two countries with my Polish counterpart Ludwik Dorn.”
Germany’s match with Poland in Dortmund on June 14 is the focus of particular security concerns and those fears were fuelled after Polish football fans fought running battles with police in Warsaw at the weekend.
But Schaeuble said officials believed violence could break out in the centres of any of the 12 cities hosting matches during the June 9 to July 9 tournament.
”I am not worried about the World Cup stadiums, because they are well-secured. But we will be confronted by a new sort of fan tourism. Hundreds of thousands of people will gather in the centre of cities.”
At all of the main meeting places in the cities, dozens of video cameras will keep watch on the crowds.
”Our officials will spot immediately where trouble is starting. Surveillance scares people off,” Schaeuble said. ”On all of the biggest city squares everyone has got to expect to be filmed.”
Schaeuble confirmed that the Iranian government had expressed concern that its team was at risk of an attack.
”We promised special liaison staff for all of the World Cup bases. The Americans will also have that because they are a potential target too.”
Although there is currently no indication that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will come to Germany to watch the finals, Schaeuble said Germany was obliged to open its doors to him.
”If he travels with the team we have to let him in, but we will tell him that his statements are unacceptable.”
Ahmadinejad denies the existence of the Holocaust and has called for Israel to be wiped from the map. — AFP
