In just one week, the BDO World Cup Men will commence in Monchengladbach, Germany. Stephan Abel, President of the German Hockey Federation (DHB) is looking ahead and conveys the atmosphere of the DHB shortly before the start of the BDO World Cup at his ‘home’. In a special interview, he explains that Germany wants to be an excellent host for one of the most important tournaments in the history of hockey.
Is the BDO World Cup dominating Hockey at this moment?
Abel: Of course the BDO World Cup is a very important event which is observed by the public, but it is a lot of extra work, too, for the office. However, there is also business as usual.
What is the aim behind it all?
Abel: Our aim is to find more members for our Hockey Clubs. There will be live television for most of the BDO World Cuo matches. The media is following the event very intensively. We hope that with this up-coming spirit young people and grown-ups will take the opportunity to join our hockey family. There are clubs in everybody's neighborhood.
Did you get enough volunteers?
Abel: Yes, fortunately: from shuttle service, to ball-kids, stand and parking staff, the press centre, the web-team, hostesses and, and, and…. all are volunteers, most of them come from Hockey. But others, who just want to help as volunteers at a World Cup in their own country, even if they had nothing to do with our sport until now. A very motivated team will help our guests. They will be coordinated by Wibke Weisel and Anna Panke. With the help of all our volunteers I am sure we shall give our best to be a good host.
How is the support of the City of Monchengladbach and district of North-Rhine-Westphalia?
Abel: Only with the support of the City and the county, we were able to build our Hockey stadium. This stadium is the basis for the BDO World Cup. Furthermore representatives of the City and the county are members of the OC helping with their expertise. We are very pleased and thank them for their help.
What are your personally looking for?
Abel: I am looking forward to welcoming all our guests in Monchengladbach and our wonderful Hockey stadium. From the first till the last day we shall watch Hockey at high level standard. We shall care for 'old' friendships and build up new ones. We want to pick up the football world-cup euphoria, which has always been a special atmosphere within Hockey anyway. We can only hope and cross fingers that the weather conditions will be good as we had them one year ago in Leipzig at the European Championship, that our team will have the necessary strength and luck to head for the goal as titleholder.
