British fans are being told to be respectful of "sensitive sites" in Volgograd like these that honor the dead from the Battle of Stalingrad.getty images
Police will issue England fans with a guide to “sensitive sites” in Volgograd and warn them "not to sing inappropriate songs around them or to hang flags on them to avoid provoking a violent reaction from locals," according to Martha Kelner of the London GUARDIAN. Between 7,000 and 10,000 England supporters are expected to travel to Russia for the World Cup, around 2,000 of whom have tickets for the first group match against Tunisia in Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad.Fans are being told "to modify their behaviour around historical monuments in the city," many of which honor the estimated 1.8m who died in the Battle of Stalingrad, "the bloodiest battle" of WWII. Police are "cautiously confident" the relatively high cost of traveling to Russia coupled with visa requirements and football banning orders will "avoid a repeat of the violent clashes which marred Euro 2016 in France and left two England fans seriously injured." A team led by Chief Inspector Joseph Stokoe traveled to Volgograd in February to "discuss security with local police." Stokoe said, "It's fine to hang flags in the stadium or in a pub where you are paying customers and the owner is OK with it" (GUARDIAN, 5/15).
LETTING HIM IN: DEUTSCHE WELLE reported Germany Foreign Minister Heiko Maas announced via Twitter that the Russian authorities "agreed to allow investigative sports journalist Hajo Seppelt into the country for the World Cup," which kicks off in June. Maas tweeted, "The Russian side has just told us that Hajo Seppelt can enter at least for the World Cup. We continue to work for free reporting." The reporter, who works for German public broadcaster ARD, initially had his visa application rejected, as Russia declared him "persona non grata" (DW, 5/15).
STATS TABLETS: Following approval by the Int'l FA Board for the use of small handheld technologies on the bench, FIFA will offer all the teams at the 2018 World Cup a technical setup for match analysts and coaches to interact. Each team will be offered two devices: one for the team analyst observing the match from the media tribune and another for the coaching staff on the bench (FIFA).
