World Cup fever ... 50 Muslims turn up early from Iraq

The World Cup is scheduled to take place in 12 German cities from June 9th to July 9th, new security vulnerabilities continue to surface. With 57 days to go, for fans who cannot get tickets, the German government will provide big screens in public.The Federal Interior Ministry has called on each state to arrange for CCTV, security checks, and crowd control.

It is now reported that over 50 Muslims who have returned to Germany from fighting in Iraq and are said to be under observation by German authorities. Those in question had been identified by the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).The German collective memory of the 1972 Munich Olympics weighs heavily, and a successful, uneventful World Cup is essential for State pride.As the Federal German military is prohibited from interfering with state functions each state will assign its police force to guard facilities. Some 400 additional security professionals are augmenting state services. Private security companies (probably many will be Special Services personnel in civilian clothes )will also guard team quarters.

German police and border patrol will be responsible for team transport, since they also are tasked with security at airports, streets, and other open areas. There is a strong possibility that unrelated protests will divert security forces from the games and potentially leave them understaffed especially in Berlin.

Currently the most significant threat is likely posed by , intoxicated hooligans, particularly from Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic, and the UK, which has notorious and longstanding hooligan problems. Authorities are more concerned with Eastern European hooliganism, as they do not have security files on many of these individuals. Border controls will be reinstated temporarily for spot checks.

Kai Hirschmann, from the German Institute of Terrorism Research and Security Politics, "in the aftermath of 9/11 , large sporting events were also pulled into the crosshairs of international terrorism. Attacks are no longer symbolic acts; for that, events like the World Cup 2006 could also be targets"

The Americans will be having a subtle presence, the US official team bus which is mainly blue in colour, will not bear a flag for security reasons.The remaining 31 country's team buses will. Which should make it easily identifiable.

At the 2002 World Cup, the United States was heavily guarded. When the Americans arrived at Incheon International Airport, over 500 police formed a corridor the players walked through as they left customs, with SWAT team commandos mixed in.

When the team’s charter flight landed at Daegu Airport to play South Korea, two tanks were on the runway. Metal detectors were placed at the entrance of the team hotel throughout the players’ stay in Seoul.

Just in case they are needed a team of officers of the U.S. State Department routinely travel with the U.S. team when it plays outside the United States.

50 Muslims may be under surveillance, security must however be extremely cautious so it is not blinded by the supposed threat of radical Islam to the exclusion of other incendiarist.... or indeed by a wide range of visitors.

Glasgow's Lord Provost (Mayor) will fly at taxpayers' expense with his wife to Nuremeburg, who have been twinned with Glasgow fro 20 years and celebrate this important anniversary by the happy civic couple attending a match Japan v Croatia on June 18.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, is also intending to attend as he is a keen soccer fan,to see Iran’s first game against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11. In the land of offical Holocaust denial his references to Israel as a "tumour" and much misreported calls to wipe "Israel off the map" are not welcome ... however you might like to find out what he DID say here and why it has been misreported.

In the murky and often ante-deluvian world of diplomatic theory, Chancellor Merkel can do nothing to stop Ahmadinejad from coming as he is a head of state with diplomatic immunity.

In the Bundestag, Wolfgang Bosbach, a senior conservative and Merkel ally, said the government must make it clear through diplomatic channels that Ahmadinejad should not come. Not a man for the diplomatic niceties, one is tempted to think that Mr Ahmadinejad might not take much notice of elegant persuasion.

FIFA , the World Cup organiser, can be persuaded to intervene say some politicians sharing a national embarassment. “Fifa should declare the Iranian president persona non grata for the duration of the tournament,” said a spokesman for the Christian Democrats.

Those who worked on previous travel bans,such as Yugoslav leaders in the early 1990s, said that arranging them took six months.