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Dirty TackleGermany will build their own World Cup hotel and training complex in Brazil
Many of Brazil's World Cup stadiums have fallen behind schedule in their construction, but there is one building project that will be so efficient that you can set your watch to it: the Germans will be building their own hotel and training complex specifically for the tournament.
The DFB (German football association) may have been inspired by the plight of the England National Team, who have chosen the Rio de Janeiro's Royal Tulip hotel as their base for the tournament. While it offers spectacular views of the Copacabana, it is described as "mouldy" and "dirty" on Tripadvisor, and in 2010 it was the scene of a shootout between drug cartels in which five guests were taken hostage.
Since all their games are taking place on the north-east coast of Brazil, Die Mannschaft are sparing no expense in building their own base in Porto Seguro, hoping it will provide the ideal preparation for their fourth World Cup win. The Guardian reports:
"We saw at the previous World Cup in 2010 that short distances between team headquarters, training pitches and media centre are crucial for everyone involved," the team manager Oliver Bierhoff said.
The "Campo Bahia", as their headquarters will be known, consists of 65 rooms still under construction with a what the DFB said was a "village atmosphere" and well away from the crowded metropolitan areas of Sao Paolo and Rio. It is to be completed by March.
The German camp is 45 minutes from Porto Seguro's airport, from where they can fly to each of their group games in under two hours. The opener in Salvador is around 430 miles away, the second game in Fortaleza is 1,000 miles north and the final game in Recife is an 870-mile jaunt. This may sound like a lot of time ordering golf tee sharpeners from Sky Mall in the air, but it is quite reasonable compared to the schedule of their Group G counterparts The USA, who will travel 9,000 miles during the first round.
"It was important for us to minimise any travel fatigue because of the size of the country and the great distances between cities," said Olivier Bierhoff. With the stress of accommodation now taken care of, now all the German players have to worry about it how early they will need to get their towels laid down on a lounger at the training complex pool to avoid disappointment...
UPDATE: The complex is being constructed and the Germans will use it, but Bierhoff has now denied that the DFB are building it specifically for themselves. "This is not built for us. It is not built according to our wishes," he told German newspaper Zeit.
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