In its rush to catch up with the rest of the world, Eastern Europe now lays claim to a particularly violent brand of soccer hooligans. There was a time when England had the worst reputation for crazy soccer fans, but the Brits are slowly being overshadowed by their up-and-coming colleagues from the east-especially in former East Germany and Poland.
Why do we care about this on a travel website, you ask?
With the World Cup occurring in Germany this summer, law enforcement officials are gearing up for an undesirable tourist invasion of these very soccer hooligans. It is particularly worrisome this year because hooligans from the former GDR are already in the country, and hooligans from Poland are just across the border. To make matters worse, Polish television stations refused to pay the high cost of telecasting the games so soccer fans from Gdansk to Zakopane will have to journey to Deutschland if they want to watch any of the action.
Police officials estimate there are at least 9,500 active East German hooligans and 20,000 Polish ones in their files. Although the total number of hooligans will only be a small percent of the estimated 1.5 million soccer fans traveling to Germany to attend the events, their presence will definitely be felt.