December 2001 - Nr. 12
Germany Qualifies
for World Cup
TWIG - German soccer fans broke out the champagne - and breathed a sigh of relief - as their national team beat Ukraine 4 to 1 Wednesday night (November 14), snatching a last-minute ticket to the World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan. The three-time world champions came dangerously close to missing out on the finals this season, a crisis that hasn’t happened since 1950. But in a stunning return to form, the Germans scored three times in the first 15 minutes of Wednesday’s match, leaving their opponents reeling. "The way the team went to work in the last eight, nine days was sensational," coach Rudi Voeller said after the victory.
The stakes have been high for Germany’s television networks and their sponsors, too. Close to 18 million viewers – the largest audience of any program so far this year - watched the crucial match on the public channel ZDF. When German teams compete for international titles the matches can attract up to 25 million viewers, guaranteeing strong sponsorship. Without the German team, the World Cup is only worth 60% as much to German broadcasters and advertisers, says Guenter Struve, program director for the network ARD. The German presence is key, agrees Dietmar Henle of the Bitburger brewery. "It would have been a pity" if the Germans hadn’t won, he says. "Now we can start planning campaigns in connection with the World Cup."
