Even their gangs of football hooligans are efficient and well-organised.
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Times Online June 30, 2006



German soccer hooligans are planning to attack English fans, police warn




German hooligans plan to attack English fans
By Sean O'Neill in Gelsenkirchen





Organised gangs of German hooligans have threatened to provoke fights with English supporters when England play in Gelsenkirchen this weekend.

Germany's federal football unit has thwarted two attempts by groups of troublemakers in the north-west of the country to attack rival supporters visiting the country for the World Cup.

They are on high alert for a third effort at creating confrontation when 80,000 English fans flood into Gelsenkirchen for their team's quarter-final clash with Portugal.

In a further attempt to keep order, more than 120 English people detained during disorder in Stuttgart have been banned from entering Gelsenkirchen or Munich, where England would play if they reach the semi-final.

Judges have been placed on standby in Gelsenkirchen and nearby Essen to authorise "preventative detentions" if there is disorder surrounding the game.
The Times has learned that hooligan gangs associated with German football clubs in Gelsenkirchen, Cologne and Dusseldorf have been collaborating with the intention of fighting foreign supporters.

"These groups are being constantly monitored by the German national spotting teams but they pose a serious threat of disorder," said a senior police source.
"They have tried to cause trouble before and they are expected to try again when England go to Gelsenkirchen."

Saturday's match venue is a small industrial city which is home to Schalke 04, one of the most passionately supported teams in Germany. A gang of troublemakers who call themselves the Gelsenszena have attached themselves to the team.

German police intelligence, and evidence of hooligan activity during the tournament so far, suggests that this gang has joined forces with at least two others, the Streetfighters from Cologne and the First Class Fighters from Dusseldorf to provoke violence.

Members of the hooligan gangs came together in Dortmund on June 9 to seek a confrontation with Polish football hooligans on the night that Germany played Poland.

Police succeeded in separating the rival fans and the German hooligans attacked the riot squads instead, throwing beer bottles, chairs, tables and fireworks. More than 30 people were injured including one policeman who was bitten on the calf.

Of the 429 people arrested during the fighting, almost 300 were German nationals. But only a handful faced criminal charges; the rest were detained in preventative custody and subsequently released.

Some of those set free re-appeared in Cologne last week hoping to start a fight with English fans on the night that England played Sweden there. Prior intelligence enabled German officers to follow the hooligans as they gathered in the centre of Cologne's old town.

The British police unit at the World Cup was surprised to find the German national football "spotting" team - which identifies and gathers intelligence on hooligans - in Cologne where England were playing rather than in Berlin where Germany played on the same day.

Local police also enlisted the help of the Bavarian riot squad - the country's elite public order unit - to deal with the threat. Those officers, in black helmets and body armour, were deployed at the end of the England game and raided two bars in Cologne's Alter Markt. In one they arrested 18 known category C hooligans and in another they detained around 80 Germans who threw bottles and glasses.

German hooligan gangs have a reputation for being well-organised. British police have been shown videos of a hooligan training camp where young men were divided into teams wearing different coloured t-shirts and taught how to incite and take part in crowd violence.

Gangs from rival clubs clash in pre-arranged fights away from stadiums and before the World Cup there were reports of an organised brawl between German and Polish troublemakers close to the

thetimesonline.co.uk

   

If England plays any worse, English fans are going to have to start kicking themselves for supporting such a team.

   

England have been playing crap.

   

Who cares...................... Huge chip off your British shoulder. Get it fixed. Good thing the Enlightenment is beyond Europe or otherwise we'd be in another Dark Age...