The tram stop serving the VELTINS Arena has been sporting a fabulous new look since the beginning of the week. Two new platform roofs have been erected as part of the construction work for the World Cup, thus ensuring that fans remain dry as they wait for their tram. More ...

Gelsenkirchen mayor Frank Baranowski, Achim Grossmann, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Affairs, Oliver Wittke, Minister for Building and Transport in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) and Winfried Pudenz, General Secretary of the NRW Highways Authority, opened the Erle autobahn tunnel today, in good time for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. More ...

With just under a month to go to the World Cup in Germany the tournament is increasingly leaving its mark on the stadium complex. The media centre has been constructed on car park P1 during the last fortnight, and work inside the Schalke Museum is also making good progress. More ...

The new A 42 autobahn turn-off in Gelsenkirchen opened for traffic today, well in time for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. World Cup visitors will be able to drive straight to the Arena via the new junction, thus substantially reducing the amount of traffic in the city centre. More ...

"First come, first served" is the order of the day when the fourth 2006 FIFA World Cup™ ticket sales phase opens on 15 February at midday (Central European Time). As in the three preceding sales periods, the retail platform is provided by official website www.FIFAworldcup.com. More ...

Gelsenkirchen mayor Frank Baranowski and World Cup ambassador Olaf Thon today honoured the winners of a World Cup art competition in which 258 Year Four, Five and Six pupils from the city's schools took part. More ...

Further talks or contact between OC officials and the German Consumers' Foundation (Stiftung Warentest) would serve no useful purpose, the 2006 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee Supervisory Board unanimously resolved at a meeting on 3 February 2006 in Neu-Isenburg chaired by Federal Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. "We are in no doubt as to the exceptionally high safety standards at our World Cup stadiums," commented Schäuble, the minister responsible for sport. More ...

A total of 100 artistically worked balls will go on show at the 'Ball Artists - Artists' Ball', which opens on Sunday, 29 January at the municipal museum on Horster Strasse. The exhibition, featuring works such as a mobile made of leather octagons, the Glow and Spike Ball, the luminous 'Universal Star' and adaptations of world-famous art entitled 'The Scream', will run until 12 March. "We were very surprised by the number of artists who are so on the ball when it comes to football", explained Ulrich Daduna, chairman of the Gelsenkirchen Art Society, which is staging the ball show. More ...

The final two bands have now been booked for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Fan Fest™ at the Glückauf-Kampfbahn stadium in Gelsenkirchen. During the FIFA World Cup™ the Fantastischen Vier and Mustafa Sandal will draw fans of German hip hop and the Turkish musician to Schalke's traditional home. More ...

Easy access and its central loca-tion is a big plus point for FIFA World Cup City Gelsenkirchen. 53,000 spectators are expected at each of the four first round matches as well as at the quarterfinals. The journey to this regularly sold-out stadium is already straightforward. But the completion of various building projects next year will ensure that driving to Gelsenkirchen will be at world class level. When the World Cup starts, a total of 55 million euros will have been invested in transport infrastructure improvements, 7 million of which will have been donated by the city. More ...

The World Cup draw has been very favourable for the arena, whose four group games will involve a tournament favourite and a number of insider tips from Europe and South and Central America. And the quarter-final match could be a classic. More ...

Two is often better than one, as they know in Gelsenkirchen, host city for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. And so it came about that on Friday not one but two World Cup films produced by Gelsenkirchen film-makers premiered at the same time. "Little Heroes - Big Dreams" by Jörg Seveneick offers the world a charming insight into the city and its favourite sport, while "Eleven for Gelsenkirchen" highlights the city's commercial profile. More ...

In the run-up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ the city of Gelsenkirchen is benefiting from transport infrastructure investments to the tune of €55m. At the recent rail#tec trade show, staff of the council's transport department and the World Cup Office informed visitors of the progress of the work at a stand forming part of a special World Cup exhibition. A total of 14,000 people visited the show. More ...

"Our World Cup stadiums shouldn't just be sold out. They should also be full," Franz Beckenbauer has declared. In order to achieve this goal, the 2006 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee (OC), with the agreement of FIFA, is offering football fans around the world a new and additional chance of securing tickets, via an offer to purchase conditional tickets between 2 and 30 November 2005. More ...

FIFA has been alerted to a number of companies which have been sending "phishing" style, unsolicited e-mails around the world informing people that they have been selected as prize winners in a lottery draw and have won substantial sums of money. More ...

Internationally renowned artists such as Andreas Gursky, Rosemarie Trockel, Markus Luepertz, Sarah Morris and Tobias Rehberger are among the artists who have contributed to an edition of Official Art Posters for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in Germany. More ...

There are another 350 days to go until 9 June 2006 - and the start of the 2006 FIFA World CupTM. The time left until kick-off is now being shown by a countdown clock on the roof of the transport pavilion at Buer bus station. On Friday it was unveiled by the mayor of Gelsenkirchen, Frank Baranowski, WM ambassador Olaf Thon and Harald Schröder, the marketing manager of CASIO Europe. This representative display of the precise, radio-controlled time was made possible by World Cup sponsor Casio. More ...

Starting in two days' time with the quarter-finals in the Netherlands and continuing the day after with the semi-finals in Germany, FIFA will hold this year's worldwide Anti-Discrimination Day in connection with the concluding phases of the FIFA World Youth Championship and the FIFA Confederations Cup. More ...

The people of Gelsenkirchen are now being given a foretaste of what will be a colourful festival of football by a super-heavyweight World Cup ambassador. Almost a year to the day before the World Cup gets under way Gelsenkirchen mayor Frank Baranowski and BOGESTRA director Dr Burkhard Rüberg launched a specially designed tram on its maiden journey. Also in attendance was Gelsenkirchen's World Cup ambassador Olaf Thon. More ...

FIFA will hold this year’s worldwide FIFA Anti-Discrimination Day in connection with the FIFA Confederations Cup Germany 2005 and the FIFA World Youth Championship Netherlands 2005 on 24-26 June. The event will be marked by activities designed to demonstrate a firm stance against racism, not only in football, but also in society in general. More ...

A foretaste of the 2006 FIFA World CupTM awaits anyone visiting the pedestrian zone on Gelsenkirchen's Bahnhofstrasse on Saturday, 27 August. The World Cup is, after all, not only a sporting occasion, but also a giant party for the city and its guests. On behalf of the city council the Gelsenkirchen-based agency emschertainment will be presenting a twelve-hour programme of entertainment on several open-air stages between 10 am and 10 pm. Topping the bill in the evening will be ex-Smokie singer Chris Norman on the main stage on Heinrich-König-Platz. More ...

A conference of State Interior Ministers meeting in Stuttgart with Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily in the chair has agreed a national security concept for the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. Schily announced a series of strict security measures, including the cancellation of all police leave in June and July 2006. More ...

The second sales period for 2006 FIFA World Cup™ match tickets begins on Monday 2 May 2005 on the stroke of 12 midday CEST (Central European Summer Time). Tickets will be allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis, i.e. applications will be processed in the order they are received. The second period features exclusively TST (Team Specific Ticket) series, available to order through the official website www.FIFAworldcup.com. More ...

The records are tumbling just three weeks after registration began for the international phase of the OC schools campaign, "Talent 2006: the FIFA World Cup at school™". "We're overwhelmed by the huge level of interest," OC vice-president Wolfgang Niersbach declared. No less than 5,522 schools have already signed up, including institutions from Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Kazakhstan, Portugal, Malaysia, Lithuania, Ukraine and the USA. More ...

At the stroke of 10.00 on Friday, David Will, FIFA Vice-President and Horst R. Schmidt, 1st Vice President of the OC 2006 FIFA World Cup triggered the draw for the first tickets of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ with a mouse click. A total of 812,000 tickets were available in the first sales phase: 665,000 individual tickets and 147,000 Team-Specific Tickets (TSTs). About 80 percent of the orders placed were from Germany (Photo: David Will, FIFA Vice-President (r), and Horst R. Schmidt, 1st Vice President of the OC 2006 FIFA World Cup). More ...

Some 424 days ahead of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™, the Organising Committee has announced another milestone in the Green Goal™ environmental initiative. "Green Goal represents uncharted territory for the Organising Committee at a FIFA World Cup. We have committed to comprehensive, measurable environmental targets at a decentralised, large-scale sporting event for the very first time. We always knew the biggest challenge from an environmental point of view would be organising transportation, especially given the decentralised nature of the event. I'm delighted the OC has already laid down important markers," Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin commented at a ceremony to activate the Green Goal internet site at the Berlin Olympic stadium. More ...

The twelve Host Venues of the 2006 FIFA World Cup have agreed comprehensive plans with the OC and FIFA for the live broadcast of tournament games on big video walls for public viewing, enabling home fans and visitors from around the world to share a unique experience at next year’s FIFA World Cup. In Gelsenkirchen the Fan Fest will take place in Schalkes old Stadium, the "Glückauf-Kampfbahn". More ...

At its previous stopovers the football globe, which forms a part of the art and culture programme accompanying the FIFA World Cup 2006™, has already proved a major crowd-puller. Based on an idea by the artist André Heller, the mobile pavilion is on a three-year tour of the twelve FIFA World Cup host cities in Germany, offering visitors an insight into football culture through the medium of emotion and play. Over the turn of the year, from 7 December 2004 until 23 January 2005, the 20 tonne sphere will be on show in the host city of Gelsenkirchen. The exact location will be announced in due course. More ...

The Organising Committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ has decided that hosts Germany will contest the opening game of the forthcoming World Cup in Munich on 9 June 2006. More ...

The Organising Committee for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ has announced the official names of the World Cup stadia. And the Arena AufSchalke will retain its name for the duration of the tournament. This means that the name Schalke will be used officially at the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ More ...

A football fashioned from stars glittering in the night sky forms the centrepiece of the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ Official Poster after the design by Berlin agency We do Communication GmbH beat off four rivals in a telephone poll, raising more than 15.500 Euro for the "6 Villages for 2006" charity campaign in the process. More ...

"Absolutely fantastic," was the reaction of the official FIFA partners who stopped off at the arena as part of the FIFA Venue Tour today. The visiting sponsors and FIFA delegation were welcomed to Gelsenkirchen by the secretary of the Local Organising Committee for the 2006 FIFA World CupTM Peter Peters, FIFA World CupTM ambassador Olaf Thon and by Dr Manfred Beck and Werner Hein of the City of Gelsenkirchen. More ...

The recommendation made by the UEFA Stadium and Security Committee in March 2003 is now official. European football's governing body has included the arena in its exclusive list of "five-star stadia". More ...

On 3 December 2003 minister of transport for North-Rhine Westphalia Dr. Axel Horstmann and Gelsenkirchen mayor Oliver Wittke marked the opening of work on the new 'Schalke (North)' autobahn junction by symbolically turning the first sod of earth. At the ceremony Mr Wittke was also handed a grant agreement in the amount of 18.8 million euros. The total cost of building the new junction on the A 42 autobahn and linking it with the main road network are put at some 22 million euros. Altogether, 85 percent of the costs will be funded by the federal and state governments. More ...

The arena will stage a total of five matches at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Four group matches and a quarter-final will take place in Gelsenkirchen, it was announced today. More ...

Some two-and-a-half years before the opening match of the tournament, or 932 days to be more precise, the 2006 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee stopped off in Gelsenkirchen to attend the official countdown launch. A number of prominent figures from the world of football, led by Franz Beckenbauer, Günter Netzer and Jupp Heynckes, and German comedy star Anke Engelke gathered in the “stadt.bau.raum”, the former engine house of Oberschuir Shaft at the now disused Consolidation Colliery, to gain a foretaste of this major event. More ...

“A time to make friends” is the motto of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, a motto the City of Gelsenkirchen and FC Schalke 04 aim to live up to. With this in mind, and with some 950 days to go before the competition kicks off, Gelsenkirchen mayor Oliver Wittke, along with Schalke general manager Rudi Assauer and managing board chairman Gerd Rehberg, launched both the “Gelsenkirchen version” of the official World Cup logo and the poster the city will use to promote this football event. More ...

Gelsenkirchen is a very old city, and Buer is its oldest section. It was first mentioned in historical documents in 1003. In 1448 the Elector Diedrich of Moers bestowed "independence" on the parish of Buer, an act symbolised by a rooted lime tree in its coat of arms, and presented it with the charter of a city, which was renewed in 1922. Around 1100 the "Horst im Bruch" moated castle was recorded as being owned by the aristocratic von der Horst family, which steadily consolidated its land holdings until 1557. The district of Horst was amalgamated with the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Buer in 1928. Today some 280,000 people live in Gelsenkirchen. More ...