Football World Cup 2006 for people with disabilities

The 2006 soccer world championship for people with disabilities took place in Germany for the first time in the three weeks from August 26 to September 17, 2006 following the professional soccer world championship . It was organized by the INAS-FID (International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability / International Sports Organization for People with Cognitive Disabilities ).

The Saudi Arabian national team won the final against the Netherlands on penalties. Favorite and defending champion England were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Germany won the game for third place against South Africa, but was subsequently disqualified.

Alignment, support, patronage

The national host was the 2006 World Cup for people with disabilities gGmbH with the support of the German Football Association (DFB). The responsible international association had awarded its 4th World Championship to the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS); The partner of the DBS was Lebenshilfe for people with disabilities, represented by the regional association of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal association. The patronage was Gerhard Schröder , who wished the World Cup “a good course, the athletes the hoped-for sporting success and the spectators exciting competitions” (information brochure: “Concentrated Passion”, page 2). After the final, he took over the award ceremony of the new world champion Saudi Arabia and the vice world champion Netherlands.

Player and coach

16 national teams from five continents with around 500 athletes, coaches and support staff competed against each other in 47 World Cup games in order to compete with England, the reigning world champion since 2002. Germany as the host and England as the defending champion as well as the national teams from Brazil (had canceled their participation at short notice; a guest team from Bosnia-Herzegovina, whose matches were played as friendly matches ), France, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Australia, Poland stepped in , Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea and Hungary. In addition to their enthusiasm for football, all players in the national teams have in common that they have a mental or learning disability and their intelligence quotient is a maximum of 75. This is next to u. a. The existence of difficulties in coping with everyday life is a prerequisite for admission to the national team, a standardized registration procedure, including an intelligence test, a psychological test, an opinion on the existence of significant restrictions in everyday skills, a 28-page questionnaire (e.g. for Ability to absorb simple requirements and complex tactical processes) and a sports medical examination. No player is allowed to attend or have attended regular school and his disability must be diagnosed before the age of 18. Member of the Bundestag Ilja Seifert criticized the fact that these admission requirements are currently receiving almost more attention in the media than the athletic performance of the players . After the opening game of the World Cup, Seifert, as spokesman for the left-wing parliamentary group on disability policy, spoke out at a meeting with Federal President Horst Koehler , who opened the games, that the media should focus more on the strengths of the players in future: "It is It's time to report on the playful maturity, tactical discipline and individual strengths of the players in the sports section of newspapers and electronic media, ” said Seifert. He could see with his own eyes at the opening game: "What is offered there is high-quality sport."

For Germany 2006 in the team were:

Team captain Guido Skorna from Eschweiler (born June 16, 1984, RN 4, midfield, 20 international matches, participation in the 2002 World Cup / Japan and the 2003 European Championship / Portugal, since 2002 active player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Dirk Müller (born August 24, 1984, RN 1, gate),
Jens Kloß from Neuss (born November 2, 1983, RN 12, goal, 5 international matches, participation in the 2002 World Cup / Japan and the 2003 European Championship / Portugal, since 2002 active player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Waldemar Monsch (born November 20, 1987, RN 2, defense)
Tufan Civelek from Datteln (born November 2, 1983, RN 3, defense, 10 international matches, participation in EM 2003 / Portugal, since 2003 active player in the national team for people with disabilities).
Adolf Blum (born September 7, 1969, RN 5, defense)
Toboggan Schmitz from Leverkusen (born January 1, 1989, RN 15, defense, active in the youth of VfL Leverkusen),
Dino Winterich from Aachen (born March 27, 1986, defense, 6 international matches, since 2004 active player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Stephan Pesch from Bad Oeynhausen (born October 11, 1981, RN 7, midfield, 1 international match, since 2005 active player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Alexander Schlei (born October 15, 1988, RN 8, midfield),
Ahmet Demir from Düren (born September 26, 1988, RN 10, midfield, 10 international matches, participation in EM 2003 / Portugal, since 2003 player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Timo Mummert (born August 30, 1983, RN 13, midfield),
Patrick Schwandt from Bergneustadt (born November 27, 1989, RN 16, midfield),
Bernd Binder from Augsburg (born March 2, 1983, RN 19, midfield, since 2002 active player in the national team for people with disabilities, participation in the 2002 World Cup / Japan and the 2003 European Championship / Portugal),
Ronny Kasper from Salzwedel (born July 29, 1985, RN 20, midfield),
Juan Miro (born December 3, 1982, RN 6, attack),
Andreas Timm from Essen (born September 23, 1974, RN 9, attack, former team captain, 70 international matches, since 1993 in the national team for people with disabilities, participation in all previous world championships),
Zipan Miro (born December 3, 1982, RN 11, attack)
Roberto Oliveira (born September 27, 1987, RN 14, attack)
Wissan El-Hammadi (born January 10, 1989, RN 17, attack)
Maik Paternuga from Bielefeld (since 2005 active player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Cornelius Albert from Wülfslingen (2 international matches, since 2004 active player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Serkan Kahraman from Aachen ,
Frank Mertens from Eschweiler (51 international matches, participation in the 1998 World Cup / England and the 2002 World Cup / Japan, since 1995 in the national team for people with disabilities),
Patrik Elsner from Kosel (7 international matches, participation in the Global Games in Sweden , since 2004 active player in the national team for people with disabilities),
Kai Thiele from Bad Oeynhausen ,
Dierk Greskowiak from Marl (8 international matches)

Five players that coach Willi Breuer had counted on could not be fielded: Manuel Hoyer, Fidan Klinaku, Skhelzan Klinaku, David Briehm and Samir Spago. At Hoyer and the Klinaku brothers, the entry requirements had changed, as their IQ was above the maximum 75 after a new classification. With Briehm and Spago, the parents could not be convinced to participate.

The German national team was trained by

Willi Breuer from Bergheim (state-certified soccer teacher, since 1992 responsible honorary coach for soccer in the German Disabled Sports Association, previously five years youth coach at 1. FC Cologne ),
Assistant trainer Ulrich Ollesch from Jülich (since 1987 active in sports and football for people with and without disabilities, participation in the World Championships 1998 / England and 2002 / Japan, as well as the European Championships 1996 / England, 2000 / Sweden and 2003 / Portugal) ,
Co-trainer Gisbert Schugall from Recklinghausen (since 1992 active in sports and football for people with and without disabilities, specialist training manager in the Recklinghausen workshops, since 2005 in the coaching staff),
Goalkeeping coach Peter Lewecke from Lemgo (sport and football for people with disabilities since 1990, participation in the World Championships 1994 / Netherlands, 1998 / England, 2002 / Japan, 2006 / Germany and the European Championships 1996 / England, 2000 / Sweden and 2003 / Portugal ).

Christoph Daum , who joined the coaching staff in August 2006 shortly before the start of the World Cup as an assistant coach.

Team manager was Wolfgang Warnke from Essen (sport and football for people with disabilities since 1980, participation as a trainer or manager at the World Championships in 1994 / Netherlands, 1998 / England and 2002 / Japan as well as at the European Championships in 1996 / England, 2000 / Sweden and 2003 / Portugal)

The national team has been looked after by the physiotherapist Heinrich Kowalczyk since 2005 .

Team doctor was Peter Dietrich from Dortmund

spectator

For example, while the World Cup in the Netherlands was attended by a total of just 30,000 spectators, around 138,000 spectators were welcomed in the stadiums in the 2006 World Cup in Germany alone. The opening ceremony with around 12,000 guests took place on August 27 in the Kölnarena in Cologne . With the opening game between Germany and Japan two days later on August 29th in the Duisburg MSV Arena in front of around 22,000 spectators, the games opened by Federal President Horst Köhler . Reiner Calmund , Christoph Daum and Guildo Horn were also present . The final and closing ceremony took place in the BayArena in Leverkusen . Overall, the games were watched by around 260,000 to 300,000 spectators in the stadiums, and millions watched the matches on television or online.

Games

The games were played in accordance with FIFA rules; however, all 16 placements have been played out if possible. What was already expected from the last world championships, was also confirmed in the 2006 World Cup: The performance level of the players is comparable to that of the divisions of the district league and District League , with all antretenden teams also significantly höherklassig playing athletes had. This is not least due to the steadily improving cooperation with the national football associations. Some players are integrated into the national league. Almost all players in the German national team play on a level between district league A and C, with the exception of team captain Skorna, who plays in the association league for Rhenania Eschweiler . As expected, there was a lot of authenticity in the game encounters , as the varying degrees of cognitive limitations of the players mean that the development of the games took place to a greater extent via situational-spontaneous emotions and less via predictive-calculating ratio : "And so the game (... ) characterized by real enthusiasm, unadulterated joy in playing and great emotions ” (information brochure“ Concentrated Passion ”, page 15).

The games were played in the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia , Lower Saxony , Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt in the following cities:

Aachen , Arendsee , Bielefeld , Bochum , Bonn , Bottrop , Braunschweig , Celle , Dinslaken , Dortmund , Düsseldorf , Duisburg (opening game), Essen , Euskirchen , Gardelegen , Gütersloh , Hamm , Hanover , Heinsberg , Hürth , Kleve , Klötze , Cologne , Krefeld , Leverkusen (final), Lippstadt , Stemwede , Lüdenscheid , Munich , Münster , Oberhausen , Olpe , Osterburg , Recklinghausen , Salzwedel , Schwelm , Stendal , Waltrop , Wermelskirchen , Wesel , Wolfsburg

The draw for the matches took place on April 28, 2006 in the ZDF capital studio in Berlin and was moderated by Johannes B. Kerner . Former national coach Rudi Völler also came as an ambassador for the World Cup . For the German national team, the lot fell on encounters with teams from Japan, Northern Ireland and Russia.

Fritz Pleitgen , WDR director and also World Cup ambassador, had already announced there that Westdeutsche Rundfunk ( WDR ) will broadcast all games of the German national team live, with the exception of the Germany - Northern Ireland encounter , as the WDR does not have the time slot from 5 p.m. and the World Cup organization did not want to schedule the game earlier. In addition, the WDR broadcast a live broadcast of the final, regardless of the participating teams, that overtime and penalty shoot-outs had gone well beyond the scheduled time frame. The programs were moderated by Okka Gundel and Jürgen Bergener, Steffen Simon and Torsten Winkler from the WDR sports department were present as commentators . The main news broadcasts of ARD and ZDF reported on the progress of the World Cup, as well as on various radio stations. The MDR, Bayrische Rundfunk and NDR included excerpts from the games in their region in their programs.

¹ Brazil canceled participation without giving a reason; apparently the participation failed because of the financial resources of the team. Apparently, for example, the companions were supposed to pay their own travel expenses, which they were not prepared to do. A visiting team from Bosnia-Herzegovina took the open seat. However, the team played outside of the rating and all games were rated 0: 3.

Since the focus of the World Cup was not on the commercial idea , but on social commitment for people with disabilities, the tickets for the World Cup games were available free of charge. A small fee was only charged for the opening and closing ceremonies and for the final (15 or 5 euros). The idea of integration was thereby emphasized, because free or inexpensive admission gave everyone access to the games and aroused the general population's interest in the World Cup. Many school classes from elementary and secondary schools were among the spectators, especially at the games that took place on weekdays.

Results

Group stage

Group A

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Germany	4-0	7th
2	Northern Ireland	2: 1	5
3	Russia	1: 1	4th
4th	Japan	1: 6	0

Germany	-	Japan	3-0
Russia	-	Northern Ireland	0-0
Germany	-	Northern Ireland	0-0
Russia	-	Japan	1-0
Germany	-	Russia	1-0
Japan	-	Northern Ireland	1: 2

Group B

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	England	24: 1	9
2	Hungary	8: 4	4th
3	Mexico	7:14	4th
4th	South Korea	2:22	0

England	-	Mexico	11: 1
Hungary	-	South Korea	7-0
Hungary	-	Mexico	1: 1
England	-	South Korea	10-0
Mexico	-	South Korea	5: 2
England	-	Hungary	3-0

Group C

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	South Africa	14: 3	9
2	France	7: 7	6th
3	Portugal	4: 6	3
4th	Bosnia and Herzegovina	0: 9	0

Bosnia and Herzegovina	-	South Africa	0: 3 ¹
Portugal	-	France	0: 2
Portugal	-	South Africa	1: 4
Bosnia and Herzegovina	-	France	0: 3 ¹
South Africa	-	France	7: 2
Bosnia and Herzegovina	-	Portugal	0: 3 ¹

¹ All of the games played by the visiting team from Bosnia and Herzegovina were played as friendlies and were rated 0-3, as they replaced the Brazilians.

Group D

rank	country	Gates	Points
1	Netherlands	55: 7	6th
2	Saudi Arabia	45: 4	6th
3	Poland	27: 3	6th
4th	Australia	2: 115	0

Netherlands	-	Saudi Arabia	2: 4
Poland	-	Australia	24: 0
Poland	-	Saudi Arabia	2-0
Netherlands	-	Australia	50: 2
Netherlands	-	Poland	3: 1
Saudi Arabia	-	Australia	41: 0

Finals

Quarter finals

Quarter Finals Placement Round
Russia	-	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3: 0 ¹
Mexico	-	Australia	10-0
Poland	-	South Korea	11: 2
Portugal	-	Japan	4: 1

Quarterfinals main round
Germany	-	France	9-0
England	-	Saudi Arabia	1: 4
Netherlands	-	Hungary	4-0
South Africa	-	Northern Ireland	3: 2 a.d.

Semifinals

Semi-final placement round
Russia	-	Poland	2: 5
Mexico	-	Portugal	2: 4
Australia	-	Japan	0: 5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	-	South Korea	0: 3 ¹

Semifinals main round
Germany	-	Netherlands	0: 5
Saudi Arabia	-	South Africa	2-0
England ²	-	Northern Ireland	without a fight
France	-	Hungary	1: 3

final

Final placement round
Australia	-	Bosnia and Herzegovina	3: 0 ¹ (15th place)
Japan	-	South Korea	4: 2 (13th place)
Russia	-	Mexico	1: 2 a.d. (11th place)
Poland	-	Portugal	4: 0 (9th place)

Final main round
England ²	-	France	without a fight (7th place)
Northern Ireland	-	Hungary	2: 4 n.e. (5th place)
Germany ³	-	South Africa	4: 0 (3rd place)
Netherlands	-	Saudi Arabia	8: 9 n.e. (1st place)

¹ All of the games played by the visiting team from Bosnia and Herzegovina were played as friendly matches and were rated 0-3, as they had replaced the Brazilians.

² Defending champion England was after his 1: left here 4 defeat in the quarter-final against Saudi Arabia. Jeff Davis, coach of the English team, stated that insurmountable difficulties within the team were the main reason for the early departure. In addition to social problems (including non-compliance with team rules, lack of discipline), the players were very frustrated after their defeat against Saudi Arabia and only eight players wanted to stay in Germany until the end of the World Cup. Davis regretted the departure, apologized to the fans, the teams and the World Cup officials and asked for their understanding. With such serious problems, "with this clientele it no longer makes sense to force the players to stay," said Davis.

³ Germany won the game for third place, but was subsequently disqualified because the team was not selected according to the given regulations. South Africa was retrospectively awarded 3rd place and all other nations moved up one place.

Objective setting, cooperation, public relations

In addition to the sporting event, a declared and achieved goal of the World Cup was to break down prejudices against people with disabilities, to promote their social integration and to create meeting places between people with and without disabilities. The program also included five “World Cup Nights” that created a platform for intercultural and integrative encounters. One took place on September 2, 2006 in each of the four federal states in which the games were played, the fifth was on September 13, 2006 in Oberhausen .

Interested parties were able to get 1000 helpers in many areas (e.g. guest care, logistics / transport, tournament organization, interpreters , assistance in the framework program, hostess service for social and sporting events, information distribution, holding sympathy meetings ) on a voluntary basis support the 2006 World Cup.

The fan club "FC passion" had already joined several hundred people in advance of the Games. A well-known member is Gerald Asamoah from FC Schalke 04 . Numerous personalities from politics, media and sport, among others, were committed as World Cup ambassadors. Among them were Theo Zwanziger , Rudi Völler , Claudia Kohde-Kilsch , Reiner Calmund , Ulrike von der Groeben , Uwe Hübner , Fritz Pleitgen , Edmund Stoiber , Manfred "Manni" Breuckmann , Christoph Metzelder , Margot Käßmann , Heiko Herrlich , Jürgen Hingsen , Guildo Horn , Johannes B. Kerner , Rolf Milser , Lukas Podolski , Roy Präger , Markus Schächter , Wolfgang Böhmer , Regina van Dinther , Hubert Hüppe , Hans-Heinrich Jordan , Katrin Kunert , Jürgen Rüttgers and Klaus Kinkel .

Under the motto “Football connects”, the World Cup truck stopped in around 60 cities in Germany from April 23 to September 16, 2006 to take part in a variety of activities, which mainly took place in the city center To make people with disabilities aware. Amy Elaine , who sang the World Cup song, TV presenter Uwe Hübner and the NeuerdinXx group accompanied the World Cup truck and, since August 26th, also the supporting program at the World Cup games in the stadiums. The hosted World Cup Truck program saw different game modules, including integrative human foosball tournaments ( human table soccer ) , screenings of films about World Cup and much more before. The truck could be booked by associations or interested cities for a fee (approx. 1,000 euros) on a daily basis, the program was co-determined by them and supported by volunteers.

On the occasion of the soccer World Cup, in addition to a series of merchandising products, a CD with the official World Cup song "FC Passion - There Is A Dream" was released. Claudia Kohde-Kilsch contributed the lyrics and Amy Elaine sang it . In particular, the song helped to support the social campaign to raise awareness of the World Cup for people with disabilities.

The social campaign was funded by the charitable foundation and Aktion Mensch , among others .

After the World Cup, a major concern for the future is the commitment to the sustainability of what has been achieved at the event. This wish was also expressed in the inscription on the poster that the German national team carried through the stadium during their farewell rounds in Essen (third place match) and Cologne (final): “We thank our fans for the great time. Please don't forget us. ”In addition to the international continuation of committed public relations work, one concern will be the struggle for generally better funding and social status of disabled sports.

Others

Guido Skorna, captain of the German national team, stood with his goal in the World Cup quarter-finals against France in the sports show for election as “ Goal of the Month September 2006”. The audience then ultimately decided in favor of Dieter Paucken ( 1. FC Köln ).

On November 16, 2006, the German team was disqualified for the time being because the world association INAS-FID does not recognize the German psychological tests that are decisive in the selection of the national players. The decision was met with incomprehension, not least from national coach Willi Breuer. The German federation filed an objection against the decision to subsequently disqualify the German team due to violations of the selection regulations (discrepancies due to the test used to determine the below-average intelligence quotient of below 75), which was submitted at the meeting of the responsible INAS-FID - The Executive Committee was negotiated from April 19-22, 2007. By then, it had been agreed to suspend the final decision so that the time could be used to clarify the disputed points. At the meeting it was finally decided to maintain the disqualification.

Movie

In the months after the major event, work was carried out on an official film for the soccer world championship for people with disabilities, which was premiered by Lebenshilfe Nordrhein-Westfalen eV on June 17, 2007 under the title Concentrated Passion in Düsseldorf.

Web links

Website of INAS , organizer of the World Cup (English)
Information & background , private website