The World Cup runneth over
This just in: A survey finds that 59 percent of Britons between 18 and 24 drink to get drunk. Overall, 24 percent of the residents of the sceptered isle have the same goal. Thirty percent admit they drink too much. On Wednesday we mentioned that one in six Britons have admitted to being loaded on the job at some point. (Is anybody over there sober besides the Queen and the odd vicar?) We bring up Britain's drinking problem because, like the rest of Europe, it is bracing for the World Cup in Germany. (It's soccer, but they insist on calling it football.) It's the world's largest media/sports event, but it's also an occasion for loutish fan behavior, fueled by excessive drinking. Forty-four percent of young Britons expect to drink more during the month-long tournament, which begins next Friday. About 100,000 British fans will make the trip.

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Watch out, Germany
Imagine Steelers fans being barred from traveling to Cleveland for a Browns game. That's roughly the sentence imposed on 3,300 British soccer hooligans, known for going bare-chested, drinking until they puke and picking fistfights with rival fans. Their names are kept in a computerized database of known hooligans, and they were forced to turn in their passports by Tuesday, The Washington Post reported. British police are also keeping an eye on the hooligans at home by demanding that they register at a local police station every day England has a game.

Horrendous fan behavior has been a major problem in England since the 1970s, but a particularly ugly brawl in 2000 in Belgium resulted in the laws that ground troublemakers. British fans hurled bottles and chairs at German supporters before and after defeating Germany. More than 900 were arrested. Prime Minister Tony Blair called it "mindless thuggery that has brought shame to the country." "Banning orders" bar disorderly fans from matches for up to 10 years. Last season, 3,600 Brits were arrested for "football-related offenses."

No f-words, please
A British hotel is offering football-free breaks for "soccer widows" desperate to escape wall-to-wall coverage of the World Cup. Any guest at the Linthwaite House Hotel in the Lake District who hears a staff member use the f-word ("football") will be given a free glass of champagne, ABC online reports. The sports sections will be removed from daily newspapers and, instead of blanket TV coverage of the big games, guests will be offered DVDs of romantic movies.

Many grandmas will die that day
Ukraine is making its first appearance in the World Cup finals, and its prime minister is not afraid of ticking off the electorate. Yuri Yekhanurov has urged employers to let workers watch the game against Spain. "On June 14 at 4 p.m we can expect an epidemic of unknown diseases," he told his Cabinet. "People will call in sick en masse."

Pick your friends well
Germany's motto in hosting the World Cup is "a time to make friends." Police will be watching what kind of pals the one million mostly male fans make. Prostitution is legal, but authorities worry about forced prostitution, The Christian Science Monitor reports. A U.N. report on human trafficking listed Germany as a top destination for women between 18 and 25 from Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria. A 2005 U.S. State Department report found that Russia accounted for one-quarter of the 1,235 victims of forced prostitution reported in Germany in 2003.

Going in feet first
The town of Herzogenaurach in northern Bavaria is home to international sportswear titans Adidas and Puma, founded by the warring Dassler brothers, Germany's version of the Hatfields and McCoys. "Some of the stories you hear are just mind-blowing," a Swedish-born Puma manager told The Independent on Sunday (London). "Puma people not marrying Adidas people, Adidas and Puma gangs in the schools, pubs loyal to one firm refusing to serve workers from the other."

Puma is smaller, with about 4,000 employees worldwide compared with Adidas' 17,000, but Puma's profit margins are better. Of course, World Cup competition is intense. Adidas is outfitting six teams. Puma is claiming it has already won, with 12 teams signed.

Why the feud? Reporter Ruth Elkins: "Elderly residents in this 13th century town still gossip that the brothers split because Adi slept with Rudi's wife, that the two wives hated each other, that Rudi fathered Adi's son and that Rudi had his hands in the petty-cash box. The most likely snapping point came from a thoughtless comment made one night in 1943 as the two brothers and their wives slept in the family air raid shelter. 'There come those pig dogs again!' raved Adi as his brother clambered down the steps. From that moment, no one could convince Rudi that Adi had been talking about the RAF bombers, not about him."