'Missing' Lankan team baffles Germany
Officials Frankfurt said the 23-member team, including the 'manager' and 'coach' 'disappeared' on Sep 13.
The sudden disappearance of a visiting Sri Lankan handball team in Frankfurt has baffled German authorities and there is suspicion the team may have landed in Italy to seek employment as immigrants.
Officials Frankfurt said the 23-member team, including the 'manager' and 'coach', which 'disappeared' on September 13, were "inept at the game". The team members showed a lack of even basic knowledge of the game and their performance was poor.
"We have a hunch that they may have come here to circumvent the rigid immigration laws and seek employment in a European country," opined a police official of Dillingen.
The team had arrived in Germany on September 9 at the invitation of the TSV Wittislingen, a sports club in south Germany, and was scheduled to go on a tour of seven townships in Bavaria. The team members disappeared on Monday, leaving behind a note in English in which they thanked their hosts for the hospitality and stated that they were leaving for France.
"The club and its officials were shocked at the sudden disappearance. At first, they assumed that the team had gone to the woods to jog and warm up for the event. However, when they did not appear for some time, some officials went to their rooms and discovered the note in English saying that they were leaving for France," said an official of the TSV Wittislingen.
The police thought at first that they may have gone underground to stay illegally in the country and look for jobs - after all, there have been precedents in the past when sportsmen invited from Asian and African countries have simply vanished without a trace - but others say that they may have gone to Italy.
The German chairman of the exchange programme, Dieter Doering, stated that he had received information from Sri Lanka that the team was indeed in Italy. Doering said that he was told that some of the team members had even telephoned their families in Sri Lanka and told them that they had found jobs in Italy.
Sri Lankan police have meanwhile been interrogating the family members of the players in Sri Lanka.
Doering said that the families of the team members faced "terrible financial consequences" since they had pawned their assets for guarantees of up to 4,700 euro (over US$5,400) for each player.
The police headquarters in Dillingen stated that a taxi driver near Guenzburg in south Germany had reported driving some of the team members.
The police have lodged an enquiry with the Sri Lankan embassy in Berlin, asking it to provide further identification details of the "missing" individuals.
The Sri Lankan players were invited here under the aegis of the Asian German Sports Exchange Programme, a Sri Lanka- based organization which promotes sports ties between Germany and Asia.
Some journalists even suggested that it could be a case of "kidnapping by a terrorist group", implying the possibility of involvement of Tamil Tiger rebels.
On the charge that the team did not know the game, the Sri Lankan government has responded by saying that this was not an "official" team approved by the sports ministry of the country.
The Sri Lankan government has said that it was a "complete mystery" how such a team was formed.