Wednesday, 12th April 2006 (3946 views)

Football gold has hit Germany with the arrival of the World Cup this week.

The 18-carat gold Jules Rimet trophy is on its world tour and has now reached the Black Forest city of Freiburg.

Normally kept safely hidden in a vault, the tour comes ahead of Germany's hosting of the World Cup this summer. In anticipation of football fever, organisers FIFA are allowing fans to have their photograph taken with the gold trophy.

This is the second World Cup trophy, cast in 1974 after Brazil was allowed to keep it in perpetuity after scoring a hat trick of victories in the finals.

That was stolen in 1983 and probably melted down for its gold; while in 1966 on a display similar to that now organised in Germany, it went missing in England.

Because of incidents such as these, FIFA will keep the original and the winners will only receive a gold-plated copy in Berlin's Olympic stadium on July 9th.

However, for the vast majority of football fans, the six kilogram solid gold trophy now on display is the nearest that they are likely to get to being with the World Cup.

 

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