German police to take careful approach to fans

Frankfurt’s police chief and a British government minister told reporters yesterday no immediate action would be taken against English fans who launch into anti-German war songs.

They issued a warning, however, to the expected 40,000 English followers flooding into Frankfurt for Saturday’s game against Paraguay that a strong force of police — German and English — were waiting to deal with them if any of their singing showed signs of escalating into violence.

“Our aim is that every fan will be happy here in Frankfurt,” police chief Achim Thiel said.

“We have no order to interrupt this fun situation.”

Vernon Coaker, British Home Office minister in charge of policing and security, said his policy was to try and persuade the English fans not to sing the songs in the first place. “It’s about saying to people ‘think about it.’

We’re not saying ‘ban it’ and it’s not about lecturing people it’s about encouraging people to think about it,” he said.

“If they break the law then British police working with the German police will have to deal with that in the way they think is appropriate.

“I suppose I’m trying to take a step back from that to say, in the first place, let’s just think about what we’re doing and also the consequences of our actions, how that might be interpreted,” Coaker said. “Eventually it could come to the point when you say ‘Sorry, you’re arrested.”

Fans arriving early in Frankfurt for tomorrow’s game wasted no time in resorting to their traditional songs, many of which relate to World War II. The hope is that the locals will ignore them rather than react.

Although British police and security services say they have stopped 95 percent of the 3,500 known hooligans making it to Germany by ordering them to surrender their passports, that doesn’t stop the singing and Coaker accepts there could be a reaction from Germans.

“The message of the (British) government is for people to recognize where fun may start to cause offense,” he said. “The (police) and I have talked about this and want them to think about where they may cross the line.”

Coaker said the British police had done everything possible to stop troublemakers getting to Germany and it was up to those fans traveling to the World Cup to respect German laws when they go to England’s games in Frankfurt (against Paraguay), Trinidad and Tobago (in Nuremberg on June 15) and Sweden (in Cologne June 20).