Basle,
Switzerland - German and Turkish fans have been urged to celebrate their Euro 2008 semi-final meeting peacefully, the presidents of the two nation's
football federations said in a joint statement issued on Wednesday. "There can be no place for violence and rioting despite the sporting rivalry on the playing field," said German football supremo Theo Zwanziger and his Turkish counterpart Hasan Dogan in the statement issued by the German federation DFB.
"We got along well even when our teams fight for 90 or 120 minutes with all they have and by fair means for a place in the Euro final."
Germany were due to play
Turkey later Wednesday in the Euro semi- finals in Basle, Switzerland.
Hundreds of thousands of fans from both camps were expected to watch the match together in the various public viewing areas in Germany, with 500,000 people alone expected in Berlin's fan zone.
Turks form the biggest community of foreigners in
Germany with around 2.2 million people.
Zwanziger and Dogan said they were happy about many calls for solidarity issued in the run-up to the match.
"We are happy to see all those cars with German and Turkish flags on their windows and about joint initiatives around the game in numerous German-Turkish areas. That's the way it should be.
"The fans as well should do their share to strengthen the traditional German-Turkish friendship," said the statement.
