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WORLD CUP 2014

BRAZIL

Suarez risks World Cup ban after Italy bite

UPDATED: Uruguay star Luis Suarez faces expulsion from the World Cup for biting another player as FIFA confirmed it had opened disciplinary proceedings against him on Wednesday.

Published: 25 June 2014 10:01 CEST
Suarez risks World Cup ban after Italy bite
Uruguay's Luis Suarez (L) clutches his teeth after allegedly biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini. Photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

Suarez, banned twice before for biting opponents, appeared to sink his teeth into defender Giorgio Chiellini on Tuesday during Uruguay's 1-0 win over Italy.

Uruguayan players and team officials pleaded ignorance but the incident was captured clearly on television footage, making a ban almost inevitable.

"FIFA can confirm disciplinary proceedings have been opened against the player Luis Suarez," FIFA said in a statement.

Suarez and the Uruguayan Football Association can submit evidence to investigators until 5:00pm (2100 GMT) on Thursday, FIFA added.

Suarez, who plays in the English Premier League for Liverpool, is one of the world's biggest stars, and could be banned for up to 24 games under FIFA rules.

He has already received long bans for biting during his club career as well as racially abusing Manchester United player Patrice Evra during a game in 2011.

The latest flashpoint occurred towards the end of Uruguay's Group D game with Italy.

Replays showed Suarez appearing to bite Chiellini's shoulder as the two players made contact in an off-the-ball incident.

Chiellini angrily remonstrated with Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez, pulling his shirt off his shoulder to show red marks on his neck.

Afterwards a disgusted Chiellini told Italian television: "He bit me, it's clear, I still have the mark."

"The referee should have blown his whistle and given him a red card," he added.

Suarez sought to play down the incident in comments to Uruguayan television, claiming Chiellini had barged him.

"There are things that happen on the pitch and you should not make such a big deal out of them," Suarez said.

However, the Italian press didn't spare him on Wednesday with several of the daily newspapers displaying a photograph of Chiellini's bare shoulder with the alleged marks.

La Stampa made much of how the team had been drained of life by not only Suarez but also the referee Marco Rodriguez who sent off midfielder Claudio Marchisio in the second-half.

"In the tussle with vampires we have been drained of blood," it wrote.

"Italy has collided with the teeth of Suarez and a red card handed out by a referee nicknamed Dracula."

The English press were only too pleased to be presented with the equivalent of an open goal by Suarez, who only days before had scored twice to beat England 2-1 and then take a swipe at them for not showing him the respect he merited.

Tabloid The Sun, however, pointed out that those very same journalists he was accusing had voted him player of the past season for his 31 goals for Liverpool.

The Times's award winning sports columnist Matthew Syed wrote that unless Suarez – who is rumoured to be eyeing a move to Real Madrid – was severely punished, football would be the loser.

"There is a case for a lengthy worldwide ban that sends an unmistakeable signal that talent can never justify the kind of behaviour that, in other circumstances, might bring a man before a judge for common assault," he wrote.

If found guilty, the incident means the end of the tournament for Suarez, lambasted during the 2010 World Cup for his goal-line handball which denied Ghana what would have been a quarter-final victory.

Coaches and former players joined in the chorus of disapproval.

"This is behaviour that's happened two times (before). You cannot justify it. I seriously think he needs help," said Everton manager Roberto Martinez after the latest Suarez transgression.

Former England star Chris Waddle, who was a member of the England squad at the 1986 World Cup finals that experienced the 'Hand of God' goal by another South American badboy Diego Maradona, told the BBC there was no excusing his behaviour.

"There will be people who will defend him, but I don't know why. I'd make him wear a gumshield," said Waddle.

The biting storm dominated the headlines Tuesday after Uruguay downed Italy 1-0 to advance to the last 16 and which resulted in the losing side's coach Cesare Prandelli resigning.

While the South American pantomime villain awaits his fate the goldenboy of the continent, Lionel Messi, will hope to celebrate his 27th birthday a day late with another eyecatching performance for Argentina against Nigeria later on Wednesday.

Nigeria, though, will be seeking to make up for the disappointment of the Ivory Coast's elimination and give Africa something to smile about with a draw probably being good enough for them to progress.

However, a heavy defeat and an Iranian win over point-less Bosnia-Hercegovina could cost the African champions their place in the last 16.

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NAMIBIA

The surprising places around the world where German is still spoken

Many people wouldn’t expect to hear German spoken outside of central Europe. Yet today it is preserved, in its own dialect, in communities stretching from Texas to Namibia.

Published: 11 September 2018 14:02 CEST
Updated: 27 May 2020 15:16 CEST
The surprising places around the world where German is still spoken
A Texas Deutsch billboard: DPA

Walking down the street in small town Texas, you wouldn’t expect to hear the locals chattering away in German. But Germany’s complex history throughout the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in a global diaspora, and the language is spoken in numerous regions outside of Europe.

Here are some of the most significant and surprising places in which German is still spoken.

Texas

Perhaps one of the most unlikely locations for the presence of a modern-day German dialect is Texas. German was transported to Texas in the mid-19th century, as a part of the wave of immigration to the United States.

READ ALSO: Texas German: How Southerners are keeping a distinct dialect alive

Emigration to the state was boosted in 1842 by the Adelsverein, which sought to establish and support German colonies throughout Texas.

Moreover, in 1847, the Meusbach-Comanche Treaty further helped to settle German colonists on the land; it remains the only unbroken treaty between European-American colonists and Native Americans.

German in Texas was unusual for an immigrant language in the USA: most died out after the third generation, but German continued to be spoken several generations after settlers brought it to the state.

However, the First and Second World Wars lead to a repression of German culture, and residents felt ashamed about speaking the language openly. Consequently, the dialect largely died out and is now spoken mostly by a small number of elderly Texans seeking to preserve their heritage.

The Hutterites

The Hutterites are an ethno-religious Christian group based in North America. There are an estimated 34,000 speakers of the Hutterite dialect of German, of which around 85% live in Canada, and 15% live in the Great Plains of the United States.

Throughout its long history, the Hutterite group emigrated from central and Eastern Europe to Russia, before settling in North America in the mid-19th century.

Hutterites live in colonies in which every member of the colony contributes towards the running and well-being of the community.

Everything, including cooking, meal-times, clothes-washing are communal, while all property is owned by the colony. The children generally learn Hutterisch, before they are taught English at schools within the colonies.

Hutterisch is based on the Tyrolean dialect spoken by the founder of the Hutterites, Jakob Hutter. Hutter, who lived in the first half of the 16th century, was a hat-maker and leading Anabaptist.

Originally from the Puster Valley, in what is now in South Tyrol in Italy, Hutter was burnt at the stake in Innsbruck in 1536 for his beliefs. Hutterite German is influenced by the Carinthian dialect, and has number of loan words from English and Russian. Hutterisch is mostly an unwritten language, although there have been attempts to write it as a dialect, such as the 2006 children’s book Lindas glücklicher Tag by Linda Maendel.

Namibia

Namibia was a German colony from 1884 to 1915; it was known as Deutsch-Südwestafrika and was part of Imperial Germany’s attempt at constructing an overseas empire.

During the First World War, Namibia was taken over by South African and British forces. Following a tense post-war relationship, Namibia gained independence from South Africa in1990.

Although English is Namibia’s only official language, German is still recognized as a national language, and is the mother tongue of roughly 30,000 Namibians. German and Afrikaans had been official languages in Namibia until independence, after which they lost their status.

The German-speaking demographic is mostly caucasian; around one-third of Namibia’s white population speaks German. It is also spoken by a small part of the well-educated black population, who speak it as a second language.

Mexico

Mexico is home to about 95,000 descendants of Mennonite immigrants who have retained their Platdietsch dialect. In the early 20th century, several thousand Russian Mennonites immigrated to Canada; however, conservative Mennonite factions soon moved to Mexico, as post-war anti-German sentiments governed Canadian society. In more conservative Mennonite communities, rules dictate that men can speak Spanish, whereas women are only permitted to speak German.

Another wave of German immigration to Mexico came at the end of the 19th century, as German chancellor Otto von Bismarck and Mexican President Porfirio Díaz collaborated to exploit agricultural potential in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Almost 500 German families were sent to Soconusco in Chiapas to establish coffee plantations and food processing facilities. In fact, a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico found that, in Soconusco, the mestizo population had a higher concentration of German heritage than Spanish.

READ ALSO: 6 things you never knew linked Mexico and Germany

The Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt in Mexico City, which was founded in 1894, is the largest German school outside of Germany. It has three campuses, and most classes are taught in German.

Brazil

There are about three million German speakers in contemporary Brazil, and German is the second most common first language in the lusophone nation. The primary German dialect spoken is Riograndenser Hunsrückisch, which is particularly prevalent in the south of Brazil.

This dialect has, unsurprisingly, been influenced by Portuguese and, to a lesser extent, indigenous languages such as Guarani and Kaingang.

The influence of Portuguese is especially notable concerning terminology for nature, and for modern technological advances: words and notions which would have been unfamiliar to the original German settlers. The word for plane, for instance, is not Flugzeug, but Aviong, which is derived from the Portuguese avião.

READ ALSO: 9 things you didn't know about Germany and Brazil

German is the best-preserved minority immigrant language in Brazil. There are various factors for this. The disparity between German and Portuguese made it harder for German immigrants to learn the dominant language; in comparison, Italian immigrants could learn Portuguese with relative ease.

The preservation of German was also aided by the high birth-rate amongst German immigrants in the 19th century; second generation German immigrant women had an average of 10.4 children, which resulted in a boom amongst the German-speaking population.

A third factor which influenced the preservation of German was the attitude of many German immigrants. In their largely rural colonies, they sought to recreate the society which they had left and believed they would never return to.

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