Soccer Match in Germany Is Canceled Over Security Concerns
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Version 0 of 1. BERLIN — The German authorities called off an exhibition soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands in Hanover on Tuesday, less than two hours before kickoff, after the authorities received what they called “a concrete security threat.” Chancellor Angela Merkel had been on her way to the match, a visit that her government had presented as a sign that Europe’s routines were resuming after the attacks in Paris on Friday. Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, who was flying to the game from Berlin with Ms. Merkel, told reporters he had decided to cancel it after “indications about a threat to tonight’s game grew more concrete in the course of the evening.” The chancellor then turned around and flew back to Berlin, he said. The minister said the decision, made while en route to the match, “was not easy,” but refused to give further details. To provide answers “would unnerve the public,” he said. The first fans who had begun filing into the stadium were evacuated. “I would ask you for a leap of faith, to believe that we had good, bitter reasons to call off the game,” Mr. de Maizière said. Earlier in the day, the police reported a bomb threat, and rumors circulated that explosives had been found in an ambulance outside of the stadium. But Boris Pistorius, interior minister for Lower Saxony denied that any explosives had been found. Germany’s national team, reigning world champions, had been playing an exhibition match, or friendly, against France in Paris on Friday when the first explosion echoed across the stadium. Mr. Pistorius said he had met the players earlier Tuesday and noted that “it is not as if the events of Friday didn’t affect many of them,” he said. After returning from Paris, the team decided that it was important to play Tuesday’s match against archrival Netherlands, to send a signal of solidarity with the French insistence not to be cowed by terrorists. “It was clear for all of us that this game should take place and must take place,” Joachim Löw, the German national coach, told reporters on Monday. “We are not prepared to change the basic way we live our lives,” Mr. de Maizière said as he sought to convey reassurance after announcing the cancellation. “We want to gather en masse to national league soccer games, to go to Christmas markets, to celebrate folk festivals. We will continue to do that, but we must always do this with consideration for public safety.” The cancellation came one day after Belgium’s soccer federation called off a Tuesday friendly with Spain in Brussels amid security concerns and after consultations with the Spanish federation. But an England-France game in Britain went ahead on Tuesday with intensive security in evidence. |