German soccer club Hoffenheim skipping World Cup coverage

By CIARÁN FAHEY
AP Sports Writer

BERLIN (AP) — German soccer club Hoffenheim is skipping this year’s World Cup in Qatar. The club says it will not give any coverage to the tournament because of the difficulty in providing what it says is the “urgently required analytical commentary contextualizing the sporting events” in the country. It refers to the “dubious circumstances of the award process, the catastrophic conditions on the stadium construction sites, the damaging impact on the climate, and the framework conditions required to hold an event like this in the desert at this unusual time.” The World Cup is scheduled to start on Nov. 20 and finish on Dec. 18 to avoid the country’s extreme temperatures.