Soccer: Blatter shrugs off World Cup stadium
fears
CAIRO : FIFA president Sepp Blatter shrugged off criticism of
safety standards at this summer's World Cup stadiums insisting that
the problems "are not very important".
He also hit out at consumer protection groups which he claims have
exaggerated the situation.
"It's not acceptable," said Blatter who is here to attend the
opening of the African Nations Cup which gets under way on
Friday.
"We had at the end of last year the reports of our inspection group
on the problems of four stadiums, problems which are not very
important."
He cited "the roof on the Frankfurt stadium, the stands at
Kaiserslautern, minor problems at Nuremburg and at another
stadium".
"All of sudden an organization which is used to being in charge of
the control of the market prices in consumer groups, they thought
they should go and look to see if the World Cup stadiums in Germany
were able to organize the World cup and they said 'NO'," he
added.
"No doubt all twelve stadiums of the World Cup will be fully
equipped and secured.
"There will be no problem with the security of the stadiums, for
the people, spectators, players, referees, and the media.
Everything will be OK.
"Don't forget that we are working in a country with 'Grundlichkeit'
(German efficiency)."
German consumer protection watchdog Stiftung Warentest last week
warned of "serious deficiencies" in security at four of the 12
stadiums to be used during the football finals starting in
June.
The independent group released a study last week showing that the
Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the Veltins Arena in the western city of
Gelsenkirchen and Leipzig's Zentralstadion in eastern Germany were
ill-equipped to cope with a stampede.
The Stiftung Warentest study found that there was no plan to allow
fans to enter the pitch in case of a mass panic.
Horst Schmidt, a vice-president on the World Cup organising
committee, hit back Tuesday with a demand that the group "revise
its report".
"The image this study gives our stadiums in Germany or abroad does
not correspond at all to reality: these stadiums have in place the
most efficient security measures possible," Schmidt said.
"We think that the study in question is very debatable since it
doesn't take into account the complexity of the question of
security... (experts) have deliberated a subject without linking it
to the whole question of security."
- AFP
