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Sports Travel: It's The Stadium, Stupid

American football isn't the only sport in which teams use their old stadiums as scapegoats. In Cologne, Germany, the stadium in question was just renovated three years ago--but it's already jinxed, according to football club FC Köln's head coach Christoph Daum, who blames the RheinEnergieStadion for his team's woes.

Daum promised to take FC Köln into Europe's top division when he was hired last year, but not getting there isn't his fault: "This isn't a football stadium, it's a torture chamber," he told reporters of the team's home, first built in 1923. "There are things that happen here that you can't explain." Spooky, or kooky? Maybe Daum could ask the World Cup teams who played and lost there last year for some back-up; speak up, Sweden, Switzerland, and Togo!

Related Stories:
· Coach blames stadium for poor record [Reuters/Yahoo!]
· Cologne Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· Sports Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: tannij77]