Fifa no to German pull out

PARIS, June 22: FIFA rejected an offer by Germany today to withdraw from the World Cup following hooligan violence in Lens yesterday, Fifa p...

PARIS, June 22: FIFA rejected an offer by Germany today to withdraw from the World Cup following hooligan violence in Lens yesterday, Fifa president Sepp Blatter told reporters.

Blatter said the offer had been made by an unnamed German delegate at a meeting of Fifa8217;s emergency committee earlier in the day.

Blatter, deploring the 8220;barbaric violence8221; at Lens, Northern France in which a Gendarme was critically injured, said the emergency committee had agreed that hooligan attacks would not be allowed to upset the World Cup.

8220;Football and sport are stronger than hooliganism and violence. We must stay here and play the games and see it through,8221; he said.

Evoking the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich which continued after 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Black September Palestinian guerrillas, he added: 8220;We must go on. There is no way we will stop the competition.8221;

He said Fifa would not contemplate switching venues to thwart the threat of hooliganism, saying that if England were scheduled to return toMarseille, scene of widespread fan violence a week ago, the match would go ahead as planned.

German soccer chief in tears: Germany soccer chief Egidius Braun said today that an attack by German hooligans on a policeman after a World Cup game in Lens yesterday was 8220;terrorism8221; and broke down in front of the media.

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Speaking to German reporters after an emergency meeting in Paris of world governing body Fifa, Braun said he had considered leaving the World Cup completely when he heard the news about the French policeman who is in a deep coma after an attack by German thugs.

8220;It was the worst moment of my life. This World Cup can be no more fun for me anymore,8221; Braun told German news agency SID.

8220;That wasn8217;t hooliganism anymore, it was terrorism. We are trying to represent our country properly in France and then criminals come and destroy it all.

8220;I was completely devastated when I heard the news. I thought about driving straight home to Aachen and not coming back. Then I wanted to see thepoliceman in hospital.8221;

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Braun added: 8220;We feel deeply sorry for the policeman and his family. We will do everything we can to help him and his family.8221;

The French policeman was struck on the head with an iron bar in clashes after Germany8217;s World Cup match against Yugoslavia. Television footage showed the policeman lying on the pavement in a pool of blood.

Regional Prefect Daniel Cadoux told a news conference that the attacker had been identified and arrested. His nationality was not given.