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© Mario
Götze / Facebook
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Bayern Munich’s Mario
Goetze, whose extra-time goal gave Germany victory over Argentina in last
year's World Cup final, will raise funds to help Germany's refugees and
migrants by auctioning his boots embroidered with the hashtag
'#refugeeswelcome'. The
23-year-old scored Bayern Munich's second goal while wearing the embroidered
lucky boots in Wednesday's 3-0 win over Olympiakos in Group F of the Champions
League. Goetze wore the same boots again in Saturday's Bundesliga match, in
which Bayern Munich beat Darmstadt 3-0.
"Away
game at unbeaten Darmstadt and we want three points," Goetze wrote on his
Facebook and Twitter.
RT report continues:
RT report continues:
"I'm
gonna play with my #refugeeswelcome shoes again, which will be auctioned at the
end of September," he added.
As
Europe's refugee crisis looms large, dubbed the worst since WW2, Germany’s
biggest football club has generously offered help. Earlier this month, Bayern
Munich promised to host training camps for kids, providing them with food,
German lessons and football equipment. The German champions have also pledged
€1 million (US$1.1 million) to help ease the plight of asylum seekers flocking to
Germany.
Other
German teams have also reached out. Arminia Bielefeld offered 500 tickets for a
match on September 12. The tickets were reportedly sold out within two hours.
Borussia Dortmund invited 220 asylum seekers to watch a Europa League match in
late August, while Mainz gave out 200 free tickets for their home match against
Hannover.
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© Mario
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Last
week, the German Football Association (DFB) announced a three-year extension to
their “1-0 for a welcome” program, which sees some 600 clubs involved in
projects to integrate immigrants through football, AFP reported.
All
36 teams in Germany's top two leagues decided to wear "We're helping!
#refugeeswelcome" logos on their shirts this weekend to encourage fans to
help asylum seekers.
Over
410,000 people have registered on Germany's initial registration system since
January, and over 100,000 asylum seekers were accepted in August alone. The
country (population 80 million) has accepted more asylum applications than any
other European country. It expects to take in a total of 800,000 refugees from
war-torn countries such as Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan in 2015 – four times the
amount in 2014.
The
crisis has driven a wedge between those who support asylum seekers and those
against them. Around 10,000 members of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans against
Western Islamization) marched through Dresden earlier this month. The crowds
decried the wave of refugees and migrants coming to Europe and, in particular,
the arrival of Muslim asylum seekers en masse in Germany. Scuffles with police
erupted during similar marches in Berlin.
“We
don’t see the refugees as bad, we blame politicians for flooding Germany with
large number of mainly young Muslim males. The government is taking
irresponsible risks, since no one can predict how they will behave in the
future,” a protester in Berlin told RT.
“They allow people without
papers, without anything, by the thousands to come into this country. They
could be murderers, could be criminals, it should be forbidden,” another
protester from Munich added.
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