Trains and buses are much in the game as Iceland volcano complicates European sports plans

Iceland volcano casts a cloud over European sports

LONDON — From a Premier League referee stranded in Romania to Bundesliga teams forced to travel across Germany by train rather than plane, the Iceland volcano is complicating European sports.

Steve Bennett was scheduled to handle the game between Manchester neighbors City and United on Saturday. But he is stuck in Romania, where he was taking charge of a course for budding referees. He was unable to fly home Friday because of a ban on flights leaving and entering Britain.

For two days, the volcano has been sending out a huge cloud of ash that the wind has blown across northern Europe, causing a danger to aircraft engines.

While the Premier League said Bennett would be replaced by Martin Atkinson for a game that could have a big impact on the title race, some teams have had to change travel plans and timetables.

Britain’s national ice hockey team is headed for the world championships in Slovenia and was to play Saturday. With the ban on flights, the team is now forced to make the long journey by Eurostar train and then bus. Its game has been delayed until later in the day.

“The last 24 hours have been manic with us stuck down here at Gatwick airport,” coach Paul Thompson said. “Whilst I am not relishing the next 24 hours being sat on a bus going to Slovenia, at least we now know that our first game has been moved to allow us an extra four hours.

“You never know, if we win this tournament it might become standard practice.”

Although no soccer games in the Premier League or Bundesliga are in danger, some of the German teams are going by train rather than plane to far-flung matches.

Hertha Berlin took the train to Frankfurt, and Mainz did the same to Hamburg. Cologne said it was offering passengers stranded at the city’s airport, one of many in Germany that was closed, free tickets to its Friday evening league match against local rival Bochum.

In Norway, Tromsoe IL assistant manager Agnar Christensen said on the club’s Web site that the team will have to cancel its next match if the flight ban isn’t lifted by Sunday.

The team’s hometown of Tromsoe is more than 200 miles north of the Arctic circle. The team is to play at Sandefjord, which is hundreds of miles away, just south of Oslo.

The French federation has told Marseille that its game at Boulogne must proceed Saturday despite the long journey from the south coast to the north.

But at least the team is allowed to fly the more than 300 miles from Marseille to Auxerre in the Burgundy region in central eastern France. From there it will be a more than 200-mile bus ride to Boulogne in northwest France.

Also scrambling is Moroccan runner Abdellah Falil. He is in the elite field in Monday’s Boston Marathon and is stranded in Paris.

Falil, who competed in the 10,000 meters at the Beijing Games, was supposed to arrive Wednesday, but now he’s not expected until Saturday night at the earliest.

The Boston Marathon isn’t the only race affected by the volcano.

“We’ve got the exact same problem,” said Andreas Maier, an organizer of Sunday’s Vienna City Marathon. “Runners can’t make it to Vienna.”

AP staffers Nesha Starcevic in Frankfurt, Ian MacDougall in Oslo and Jerome Pugmire in Monte Carlo contributed to this report.