gngrasso
10 Jan 2006, 11:15 AM
Won't stop me from going to Germany....
German consumer group blasts World Cup stadium safety
By Philip Blenkinsop
BERLIN, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Germany's World Cup stadiums have serious safety problems as lessons from past disasters seem to have been ignored, a German consumer protection group said on Tuesday.
Stiftung Warentest, respected throughout Germany for its rating of consumer products and services, said safety in general had improved since 1980s multiple fatalities at the Heysel, Bradford and Hillsborough soccer stadiums, but deficiencies persisted.
"The results were sobering. Many of the conclusions drawn 20 years ago have either been forgotten or partly ignored," Holger Brackemann, department chief at Stiftung Warentest, told a news conference five months before the tournament begins on June 9.
Franz Beckenbauer, head of Germany's World Cup organising committee, has rejected the group's criticism.
The consumer group found that three World Cup stadiums in particular -- Gelsenkirchen, Leipzig and final venue Berlin -- were not prepared for a mass evacuation. Officials from several of the arenas said the group got some of its facts wrong.
Crowd panic, set off for example by a bomb warning, could have fatal consequences, the group concluded, as there were no exits onto the pitches.
The stadium in Kaiserslautern, where cracks were discovered in a stand last month, was a fire hazard, with a press area built on a wooden podium and a lack of alarms on sprinklers in the north stand, Stiftung Warentest concluded.
Overall, the group rated four stadiums, including Munich's stunning new arena that will host the opening match on June 9, as having a few shortcomings, four more as having clear failings and a final four, including Berlin, as having grave deficits.
Beckenbauer on Monday criticised Stiftung Warentest, which had indicated it would expose safety problems at stadiums, saying it should stick to testing consumer items such as olive oil, face creams and vacuum cleaners.
"I'm really sick and tired of the army of know-it-alls trying to lift their profile at the expense of the World Cup," he said. Stiftung Warentest argued that its report gave organisers five months to improve matters.
"I don't think such criticism is very professional," Brackemann said. "It would be better if they found it helpful for their organisation of the World Cup."
He added the group had tested stadium safety before, in the mid and late 1980s before Germany's hosting of the European Championship in 1988, and had also looked at safety at other places, such as railway stations.
German consumer group blasts World Cup stadium safety
By Philip Blenkinsop
BERLIN, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Germany's World Cup stadiums have serious safety problems as lessons from past disasters seem to have been ignored, a German consumer protection group said on Tuesday.
Stiftung Warentest, respected throughout Germany for its rating of consumer products and services, said safety in general had improved since 1980s multiple fatalities at the Heysel, Bradford and Hillsborough soccer stadiums, but deficiencies persisted.
"The results were sobering. Many of the conclusions drawn 20 years ago have either been forgotten or partly ignored," Holger Brackemann, department chief at Stiftung Warentest, told a news conference five months before the tournament begins on June 9.
Franz Beckenbauer, head of Germany's World Cup organising committee, has rejected the group's criticism.
The consumer group found that three World Cup stadiums in particular -- Gelsenkirchen, Leipzig and final venue Berlin -- were not prepared for a mass evacuation. Officials from several of the arenas said the group got some of its facts wrong.
Crowd panic, set off for example by a bomb warning, could have fatal consequences, the group concluded, as there were no exits onto the pitches.
The stadium in Kaiserslautern, where cracks were discovered in a stand last month, was a fire hazard, with a press area built on a wooden podium and a lack of alarms on sprinklers in the north stand, Stiftung Warentest concluded.
Overall, the group rated four stadiums, including Munich's stunning new arena that will host the opening match on June 9, as having a few shortcomings, four more as having clear failings and a final four, including Berlin, as having grave deficits.
Beckenbauer on Monday criticised Stiftung Warentest, which had indicated it would expose safety problems at stadiums, saying it should stick to testing consumer items such as olive oil, face creams and vacuum cleaners.
"I'm really sick and tired of the army of know-it-alls trying to lift their profile at the expense of the World Cup," he said. Stiftung Warentest argued that its report gave organisers five months to improve matters.
"I don't think such criticism is very professional," Brackemann said. "It would be better if they found it helpful for their organisation of the World Cup."
He added the group had tested stadium safety before, in the mid and late 1980s before Germany's hosting of the European Championship in 1988, and had also looked at safety at other places, such as railway stations.