Germany team has no place to stay

by Tamas S. Kiss Thursday, May 27th, 2010

The German national squad has been told that it cannot stay in its planned hotel complex in Pretoria as the owner had illegally built the complex, and does not hold certain licenses required to operate the establishment. The German government has demanded a formal explanation by the host nation, while FIFA is Pilatus, washing its hands. The German team is due to arrive shortly, but have no idea where they will be staying unless the South African administration makes a plan and gives the perpetrator an illegal license.

German national team manager and German former football striker Oliver Bierhoff is reportedly disgusted, adding that he would never have expected that anything of this sort could have happened. The German soccer team’s camp site at 99-room Velmore Hotel and Conference Centre in Centurion, Pretoria is reportedly built on dolomite within a flood-line, says Gauteng province’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department (ARDD). The ARDD had allegedly issued administrative notices to the developer of the hotel.

The complex faces a penalty o- ZAR1.5- mil, according to department spokesman Thabo Masebe. The developer had allegedly applied in 2005 for construction approval under the National Environmental Management Act, a veiled corruption chance that enables the amendment of illegal developments. However no environmental report – required under this act- had been submitted.

Just recently Bierhoff said that he had intentionally chose the Hungarian national squad to practice with in the end of the warm-up games before going to South Africa. “We were looking for a team that could give us serious competition,” said Bierhoff.

The two teams celebrated an eventful match at Budapest’s ailing Ferenc Puskas Stadium. Germany was the opponent of Hungary in the 1954 Football World Cup final, which it won 3-2 in Bern, Switzerland. That was the last time Hungary was able to play in a world cup as the 1956 Revolution against Soviet oppression, not only dispersed the once Golden Team, but also introduced low moral football.

Gyula Grosics (former goalkeeper of Hungary’s most famous football team) told Budapest Report that Hungarian today are so bad at football because while impoverished kids in Brasil play football with oranges on the Copacobana, Hungarian kids are generally unfit and more concerned more about computer games, like play station and everything else except football.