Soccer Sieg Heil!

This is one of the unintended consequences of hosting the 2006 World Cup in a formerly Nazi country:

Fans who perform Nazi salutes at this summer's World Cup will be arrested and prosecuted, Germany's interior minister warned England supporters yesterday.

The Germans are more concerned about British fans doing this for fun: it's how you stick out your tongue at the Germans. That's because displaying Nazi symbols or giving a Hitler salute are illegal in Germany.

However it was this little quote that made my Jewish Mexican blood boil:

Franz Beckenbauer, president of the World Cup organising committee, said that security at previous tournaments had not always been strict. "I remember the 1966 World Cup in England," he said yesterday. "There were very few policemen there. The only ones I saw were directing traffic.

"It was the same in 1972 in Mexico. There was one policeman on duty wearing a sombrero and clutching an ancient machine gun. During the siesta period he fell asleep."

First, the world cup in Mexico City was in 1970, not 1972. Secondly, I assure you that whatever horrendous stories you've heard about the Mexican police, this blatantly stereotypical recollection Beckenbauer just made up out of his unapologetically teutonic ass.

ONCE AND FOR ALL, PEOPLE: THERE IS NO SIESTA PERIOD IN MEXICO CITY. THERE HAS NOT BEEN A SIESTA PERIOD IN MEXICO CITY SINCE 1872.

Then the Germans complain that the world makes fun of their Nazi inclinations.
And just to remind us of why Germany may not be the best idea:

According to the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel, far-right German extremists intend to link up with anti-semitic hooligans from neighbouring Poland (SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?).
German far-right groups have already announced their intention to stage five demonstrations expressing solidarity with Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who last year denied the Holocaust.

This is a gem: the skinheads in bed with the extremist turbanhead, united in their hatred of the Jews.

Security throughout the world had been transformed in the wake of the attack by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich Olympics. "In the 1974 World Cup in Germany we were surrounded by police," Beckenbauer recalled. "They wouldn't let us out for excursions [to the pub], which is why we played so badly in the first three games. Eventually they came with us. Then we won."

He may have been a great soccer player, but the guy is a complete moron.