SIDEBAR: German football fans already saving for 2010 World Cup

Around 1,000 German football fans are contributing each month to a savings club to fund their trip to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, a travel agency working with the 2010 World Cup Savings Club in the Lower Saxony state said Friday. Hans Overhage of Vieten Tours in Dusseldorf estimates at around 3,500 euros the cost for a German of spending two weeks at the World Cup and of attending three World Cup games. "For some people it is not possible to pay that in one year," Overhage told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a telephone interview. The savings club, which is the brainchild of Wilhelm Koormann, dates to before to the 1994 World Cup in the US, another destination that stretched the budget of low-to-middle income German fans. Members of the club have been paying around 50 euros per month since November 2006, according to Overhage. The club's website claims that members who started saving in October 2006 through Oldenburg State Bank would have 2,500 euros towards their trip by the tournament's kick-off in 1,000 days time. Vieten Tours is designing a World Cup package that includes three-star accommodation close to Johannesburg, within striking distance of six stadiums, and entry to three games. The trip will also include a visit to Cape Town, a game reserve and either the beaches of Mozambique or the red-sand deserts of former German colony Namibia. dpa cb adh