WORLD VIEWS
FRANCE
From France-Soir
A cartoon on Page 3 had this caption: “World Cup: the event that brings people together,” under a drawing of fan wearing a Brazilian shirt brandishing a club and about to hit a pot-bellied, shaven-head fan wearing an England shirt and burning a French flag.
GERMANY
Left-of-center nationwide daily die tageszeitung, on hooligans:
“At least 1,000, some sources say 10,000 born Iranians were rejected at French borders in the last week. Border guards didn’t care if they had European passports or the status of recognized refugees, if they had tickets or not. The reason: The Tehran regime demanded for the match Iran vs. U.S.A. to avoid any demonstration of the opposition. And now we shall believe that the police was able to stop at least 1,000 opposition members but not a couple of hundred European hooligans?”
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Left-of-center Berlin daily “Berliner Zeitung,” on the potential withdrawal of the German team because of the hooligan incidents:
“A withdrawal would be the worst of all possible reactions. The effect would be fatal. The brown mob would have a victory that it would live off for years. There must be no surrender to violence.”
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Nationwide tabloid BILD, on the discussions within the German Soccer Assn. about a withdrawal from the World Cup and rumors about a resignation of Coach Berti Vogts:
“The German Soccer Assn. doesn’t cut a good figure these days. The whole world was led up the garden pass with the claim they had never thought of a withdrawal. Finally, they had to admit that there actually were such thoughts. This was reason enough for Vogts to think publicly about consequences which included a possible step-down. But on Tuesday evening, also the coach changed his mind. Probably not voluntarily, he had to declare that he was misunderstood. One thing we have understood: The German Soccer Assn. is a house of fools.”
SOUTH AMERICA
From O Globo:
“So it wasn’t a foul and shouldn’t have been a penalty kick. But that does not justify the weak performance of Brazil. Winning or losing isn’t the point. Playing badly is the point. We talked too much before the game and played too little when the ball started rolling. . . . When it was all said and done, Norwegian Coach Egil Olsen had the last laugh. And Zagallo had to eat his words again.”
MEXICO
From Reforma newspaper:
“FIFA has a very important job before the next World Cup, to be held in Japan and South Korea, and that is to decide if it wants the same configuration of 32 teams in eight groups. To keep things the way they are would cause more grave injustices like the elimination of Morocco, with four points, and the advance of Chile, with only three. FIFA could return to six groups and thereby give the best third-place the opportunity to qualify for the second round.”
Times correspondents Christian Retzlaff in Berlin, Sebastian Rotella in Buenos Aires, Brinley Bruton in Mexico City and Helene Elliott in Saint-Denis contributed to this report.
