25 June 2010, 04:15 p.m.

Restaurants and pubs in world cup host city Bloemfontein is stocking up on booze as they prepare for the titanic clash between England and Germany on Sunday. 

AFP reports that George Mohlakoana, chief executive of the Mangaung Local Organising Committee, said up to 25 000 English fans and up to 10 000 German supporters were expected in the city for Sunday's match. "Normally, in terms of our own provincial laws, Sunday is considered a day when alcohol should not be sold from wholesalers. However, you can get alcohol from restaurants and pubs." 

Need a lot of beer

He said organisers had communicated with pubs and restaurants to make them aware of the fact that the two sets of supporters come from beer-drinking cultures and that they would need to stock adequate supplies. 

 

He indicated that law enforcement officers have been alerted to make sure things do not get out of hand. 

 

High Priority

The game between England and Germany has been classified as “high priority”  by the South African police.  

 

"Those are high-priority teams for us," South Africa Police Service spokeswoman Brigadier Sally de Beer told AP on Thursday. "As with the (England)-U.S.A. game where we beefed up security ... we will deploy additional forces and resources." She added that they had no information on specific threats or concerns about possible crowd misbehavior. 

 

Last major game ended in violence

Sapa however reports that the last major German/English match was about 10 years ago during the European championships in Belgium and resulted post-match violence leading to the arrest of 500 fans and two days of violence. 

"There's a bit of animosity between the two teams in the past, and obviously we'll keep that in consideration when deploying our members and resources," national police spokesperson Sally de Beer told AFP. 

 

“Not expecting any trouble”

Sport24.com quoted LOC spokesman Jermaine Craig saying they have been in close contact with both the German and English police but are not expecting any trouble in Bloemfontein. 

 

"We are working closely with the German and English police, but we are sure everything is going to be okay," said Craig. 

 

"The security measures are in place, and we are confident everything will go okay. So far this World Cup has been very peaceful."