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Wayne Rooney worked out separately from his England teammates on Tuesday at their idyllic Black Forest training camp amid a surge of optimism that he could be fit for the World Cup. Pictures of Rooney unleashing a flying scissor-kick with his injured right foot dominated British newspapers, triggering speculation that he might yet be given the all-clear to stay with the squad.
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An estimated 400Â 000 prostitutes work in Germany, about 250Â 000 of whom are probably foreigners. Many were brought into the country by human traffickers from Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia. Experts believe that between 70Â 000 and 120Â 000 women are transported to Germany for prostitution each year.
The Ecuadoreans have colds. The Angolans are shivering. Trinidad and Tobago players stuffed their hands deep in their pockets as they took the field for a friendly. In Hamburg, about 320km to the north, even the locals are bundling up in thick wool coats and scarves.
The Italy soccer team will find themselves in familiar surroundings when they arrive at their World Cup accommodation in Duisburg, Germany. Antonio Pelle, an Italian expatriate from the southern region of Calabria, jointly owns the four-star Landhaus Milser hotel and has gone to great lengths to ensure his illustrious guests don’t feel homesick.
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Ghana are not afraid to play Italy or their other Group E opponents at the World Cup after receiving a boost with the return of midfielder Michael Essien. The West Africans, making their first World Cup appearance in Germany, were buoyed by Sunday’s 3-1 warm-up victory over South Korea.
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England, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Portugal earned big wins in World Cup warm-ups on Saturday, six days before the start of the tournament. Peter Crouch led England with three goals and Michael Owen added another in the team’s 6-0 win over Jamaica.
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Brazil is so loaded with talent that it could probably field the best two teams in the World Cup. Lucky for hosts Germany and a handful of other upset hopefuls, the rules for the world’s most popular sporting event allow only one team per country. And who might be best prepared to upset the Brazilians?
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German football chiefs have called for the nation to protest against neo-Nazi marches during this month’s World Cup finals and show the world that a unified Germany has no time for xenophobia. A number of neo-Nazi organisations are expected to use the World Cup, beginning in just seven days time, as a platform to voice their opinions.
A German court jailed a woman for 15 years on Thursday for killing eight of her newborn babies in the worst case of infanticide in the country’s criminal history. The court, in Frankfurt an der Oder on the Polish border, convicted Sabine Hilschenz, a 40-year-old woman who has borne a total of 13 children, of eight counts of manslaughter.
Germany’s seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher has hit out at the critics who accused him of deliberately crashing his car to prevent anyone beating his qualifying time for Sunday’s Monte Carlo Grand Prix. ”I am used to being criticised, but sometimes people are too quick to pass judgement,” Schumacher said.
World Cup hopefuls Germany and Japan have a chance to find out where they stand less than a fortnight before the finals when they lock horns in a friendly match at the BayArena on Tuesday. Host nation Germany crushed minnows Luxembourg 7-0 on Saturday to boost confidence but are likely to face a much stiffer test of their credentials against Asian champions Japan.
Hundreds of thousands of VIP ticket-holders for the World Cup could be barred from stadia for not having their names on the tickets, media reports said on Monday. The German organising committee of the World Cup and Swiss agent ISE, hired by football’s world governing body Fifa to oversee commercial sales of tickets have insisted they are not responsible for the blunder.
Deutsche Boerse, operator of the German stock exchange, refused on Monday to budge on the terms of its offer to merge with Euronext, indicating it would not increase its bid or be drawn into a bidding battle with the New York Stock Exchange for the pan-European rival.
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Angola arrived in Hanover airport in Germany on Saturday ahead of the World Cup finals with threats by neo-Nazis of a march on the day of one of their matches. As the debutant West Africans became the third participating nation, after Togo and Costa Rica to set up camp ahead football showpiece, weekly magazine Der Spiegel broke the news about a planned anti-semitic neo-Nazi rally.
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Germany’s federal prosecutor on Friday weighed in on the debate about the risk of racist attacks during the World Cup, agreeing such a danger existed in some parts of the former East Germany. ”The situation is such that exceptionally brutal attacks may happen, which could lead certain parts of the population to avoid living in those areas,” Kay Nehm said in an interview.
German politicians and football authorities reacted with anger on Thursday to a warning from a former government spokesperson that World Cup visitors from abroad risked race attacks in eastern Germany. ”There are small and mid-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere where I would advise anyone with a different skin colour not to go,” Uwe-Karsten Heye said.
German security authorities believe 21 World Cup matches are at high risk of terrorist attack, Stern magazine reported on Wednesday. The assessment, compiled by Germany’s Federal Crime Office, known as the BKA, said Islamic extremists posed a particular danger, according to the magazine.
Foreign visitors to the World Cup should avoid some areas around Berlin because of the risk of racist attack, a former German government spokesperson said on Wednesday. ”There are small and mid-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere where I would advise anyone with a different skin colour not to go,” Uwe-Karsten Heye told Deutschlandradio Kultur.
World Cup organisers on Tuesday revealed a plan to use so-called ”human barriers” to prevent pitch invasions at next month’s finals. Last year’s Confederations Cup, also held in Germany, saw several matches interrupted by pitch invasions, and the organising committee wants to ensure there is no repeat at the World Cup.
They sacrifice their holiday time but they don’t get a single cent. They come from all social classes and corners of the world, but the 15 000 volunteers have one thing in common — their enthusiasm for the World Cup spectacle. ”The volunteers will be the smiling faces of the World Cup,” says Theo Zwanziger, president of the World Cup organising committee.
No other subject has generated such fever among football fans and officials over the past few months as the sale of 3,7-million tickets for the World Cup’s 64 matches. And the problematic issue looks set to occupy the public right up to the tournament final on July 9.
Teamgeist (team spirit) is the unusual name of the adidas match ball that will be used in the upcoming World Cup. For the ball colours, however, the designers stuck with traditional black and white — except for the final in Berlin. The teams fighting for the championship title on July 9 will be kicking a gold-and-white ball.
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.
German health experts on Friday warned football fans coming to the World Cup to have themselves vaccinated against measles, following an outbreak in a state that will host 11 matches. More than 1Â 100 people in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia have caught the disease in the past ten weeks, according to authorities in the state.
Several portable MP3 players can be as loud as a Formula One car causing irreparable damage to your hearing, the German Forum of Good Hearing (FGH) warned quoting a recent British study. The FGH said the study found that 39% of 18 to 24-year olds spent at least one hour per day listening to music via headphones with a volume of up to 105 decibels.
German organisers confirmed on Wednesday that football fans would be allowed to consume alcohol at next month’s World Cup finals. The organising committee said it was always the plan to sell beer at the 12 World Cup stadiums, although police have the right to order alcohol bans for matches they consider to be at risk from hooligans.
Self-confessed German cannibal Armin Meiwes, who killed and ate a man he met through the internet, was on Tuesday given a life sentence after he was found guilty of murder. The court found that the man, known as the cannibal of Rotenburg, had killed his victim to satisfy his sexual urges. Meiwes (44) immediately signalled that he was going to appeal the sentence.
Kimi Raikkonen continued to complain about McLaren’s lack of pace on Sunday, after finishing fourth in the European Grand Prix. The 26-year-old Finn wanted a podium finish in front of Mercedes-Benz’ home fans, but was unable to make an impression on the leading Ferraris and Renaults after starting fifth on the grid.
Michael Schumacher wasn’t surprised he won his second straight Formula One race after taking out the European Grand Prix for the sixth time on Sunday. Schumacher, who also relegated F1 champion Fernando Alonso to runner-up at Nürburgring like he did at San Marino GP two weeks ago, felt Ferrari’s earlier performances in the season weren’t accurate.
Two German engineers who were held hostage in Iraq for more than three months said they were glad to be alive after they returned home on Wednesday. Rene Braeunlich (32) and Thomas Nitzschke (28) landed at Berlin’s Tegel airport after spending the night at the German embassy in Baghdad following their release on Tuesday.
After managing his first victory of the season in the last race in Imola at the San Marino Grand Prix Michael Schumacher is hoping for a repeat performance this Sunday at the European Grand Prix on the Nuerburgring. ”Imola should not be a once-only. We are determined to leave the Nuerburgring with a victory,” the seven-time world champion said.
The BMW Z4 coupé is available from this month at European dealers just a year after the first design study was unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Prices start at â,¬38Â 900 (about R335Â 000) and are between â,¬1Â 500 and â,¬2Â 000 cheaper than the convertible, depending on the engine size.