Who Ate All The Bratwurst

The worst seat in the ground

I'd be a little disappointed if I had a World Cup ticket and was shown to these seats. Not exactly the best view in the house…

Fifa changes German stadium names

Fifa has officially changed the names of seven out of the 12 World Cup stadiums in Germany, so as not to piss off its official sponsors. These seven will all now be known – for the duration of the World Cup only – as the 'Fifa WM Stadion'. Exciting name, eh!

Fifa changes German stadium names cont…

Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Hannover, Cologne, Gelsenkirchen, and Dortmund have all had their sponsor names removed, as Fifa sets about creating a 'clean' environment for its 15 official partners' wares. To this end, the names of companies which are not among the official Fifa sponsors are being removed. So Munich's Allianz Arena, for example, has had to remove any trace of Allianz sponsorship, a bit bloody difficult given the massive Allianz sign on its side – it had to be taken down by a crane.

Fifa, you gotta love 'em.

Largest Online Stadium packs in more than 50,000 fans

A few weeks back we told you about www.largestonlinestadium.com, a web community for football fans who want terrace banter but were unable to get tickets for Germany. The stadium attendance has now passed the 50,000 mark. Click here to put your fan in the stadium. You can then talk to any of the other 51,318 fans and take advantage of features including games and a new Propaganda Gallery.

Rob Parker

World Cup travel guides: the best on the web

If you're about to head off to Germany (you lucky people), then here's a very handy round-up of the best Germany '06 travel guides on the web. Not that we couldn't be arsed to do one ourselves, you understand – we know that you don't visit Bratwurst for information. You come here for the funny videos, witty writing and the World Cup of Babes. Click below for the travel guides…

World Cup travel guides: the best on the web cont…

Here are some of the best venue guides for visitors to the World Cup in Germany this summer:

BBC Sport More of a venue guide than a city guide, but does that job perfectly well.

Guardian Unlimited As comprehensive and well-written as you'd expect. Features great local tips from Guardian readers too.

FifaWorld Cup.com Rather dry writing but it's informative and up-to-date.

The Times All good stuff, including an inside view on England's Baden Baden base camp.

Wikitravel Includes a list of where all 32 teams are staying. Not that we suggest you go to Paraguay's hotel at 5am this Friday with a marching band…

Lonely Planet For £2.50 you can download a 36-page, PDF guide to the World Cup. The guide is excellent, but bear in mind you can get much of its info for free elsewhere (see above, for example).

New York Times Where to stay, eat, party and watch matches free in Germany's 12 host cities. Simple  but effective.

ESPN Including advice on how to get your hands on last-minute tickets.

German Phrases for all you travellers!

Travelling England will probably find that most of the competing nations fans, at this years World Cup, speak better English than you do. However, throughout the world, us Englanders are known for being perfect guests. Ok, that may be a fib, but let us help you out on that one with some very useful phrases to try out on our counterparts.

If you want to scream "GOOOOOAL" in German, that's nice and easy... just yell "TOR!" and you're in. Alas, the World Cup offers so much more than that doesn't it? How about "Wenn ich ihnen meine Telefonnummer gäbe, würden Sie wegwerfen oder behalten?" which means "If I gave you my phone number, would you keep it or throw it away?" Useful when having spied a Bavarian beauty.

That said, you won't just meet German's you know. If England get beat by a rampant Brazil side, and one of their fans offers you a drink after the game, you so chirp "Grande, estou afogando as mágoas!" which pretty much means "Make it a large one... I'm drowing my sorrows."

Better still, if some mocking French fans start up about Rooney, reply with "Qui a besoin de Rooney quand nous avons l'homme de robot?" which will bring a puzzled face or two as it means "Who needs Rooney when we've got Robot-Man?"

I think you all know "Campione" don't you?

Mof Gimmers

Sloping football pitch

Now that's what I call a dodgy playing surface…

The Road To Germany - The Observer's guide to getting to the World Cup

The Observer has put together a guide for travelling England fans on their way to the World Cup. The guide includes a quick route to get you there as soon as possible, a gourmet route to take in the best food and drink Europe has to offer, a party route if you don't mind arriving with a serious hangover and a cultural route if you fancy yourself as a bit of a Simon Schama. Click here to read it.

Rob Parker

Important info for fans

You need to be organised if you're going to the World Cup. It ain't the sort of thing that you decide to do at the drop of a hat. In that case, let me point you in the direction of one place you should definitely check before you travel. The German Embassy have got a cool website with guides to the venues, tickets and transport once you're over in the Fatherland. You may also want to check the German Tourist office in London too.
(mof gimmers)

Who needs a ticket anyway?

There is currently uproar about the amount of World Cup tickets that are either going to sponsors or going missing, as reported by WaatB? yesterday. This German website has come up with an ingenious alternative - an online football stadium.

You choose your seat, pick your outfit and can talk to any other fan in the stadium.  And even better, you can do it without being ripped off by Sepp Blatter!  It is free to put your fan in the stadium.  As suggested by the web address - www.largestonlinestadium.com - the team behind the website are hoping to create the largest online stadium!

Rob Parker

World Cup Stadia

What you see here is not some weird spacecraft. It is the new stadium in Munich, set to be a venue in the World Cup. It glows in which ever colour you like (honestly!) and is a bittersweet departure from the already lovely stadium that Bayern play at.

So, in my endeavours to find all the World Cup venues, I became aware very quickly that I am, in fact, rubbish.

I clicked on to Google Earth and found that I couldn't work the bloody thing... possibly down to a difficult operating system... more likely due to my idiocy. So I thought I'd set the readers a challenge. Find all the venues in Germany and post up your co-ordinates here. First one to do so wins 10 points.

Mof Gimmers

Maybe we should build the new Wembley out of Lego?

The excellent World Cup Blog has a splendid post about an amazing Lego replica of Munich's Allianz Arena. The attention to detail is, as David Colemanballs might say, quite remarkable.

Hamburg's Hooligan Hotel

A temporary jail is currently being built in Hamburg to detain World Cup troublemakers. The facility will be able to hold up to 150 'prisoners'. The USA, not well known for its crew, is staying in Hamburg and only five games will be played there, so it remains to be seen if the hoolie hotel will be fully booked or pretty vacant in June and July.