German fed sending security chief to South Africa

PRINT EMAIL FACEBOOK DIGG TWITTER RSS SHARE

FRANKFURT (AP) -- The German football federation is sending its security chief to South Africa to inspect the team's headquarters at next year's World Cup before deciding if any extra security measures would be needed in the crime-ridden nation.

Helmut Spahn, the federation's official in charge of security, will travel to South Africa at the end of this week. The Germans will be based in the Velmore hotel near Pretoria.

"We will then receive the first security report," federation spokesman Harald Stenger said Wednesday.

After a security workshop following the draw on Dec. 4, the federation will receive more information and will then decide if and what extra security measures it might take on its own to beef up security for the national team and its entourage, Stenger said.

Any such measures would have to be cleared by FIFA and the South African organizers, he said.

The German team is usually accompanied at major tournaments by one or two officers from the Federal Crime Office, the German equivalent of the FBI. Bodyguards also regularly accompany the team.

"We'll have to adjust to a World Cup under different conditions," said national team manager Oliver Bierhoff, who is responsible for the logistics. "The players won't be able to move so freely as they did 2006 in Germany or 2008 at the European Championship in Austria and Switzerland."

Several private companies are bidding to provide extra security for the team and the chief of one of them told the Sport-Bild magazine the players should not be able to leave their hotel without bodyguards and bulletproof vests. But Stenger said the federation had not decided whether to employ the services of a private company.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.