When Tobias Feuerhake has to go to the ATM these days, he is accompanied by police officers.

Not because he had criminal intentions, but organizational ones.

For a 30-strong German hockey entourage.

In East India.

In Corona times.

The preparations for the German U-21 national team's stay at the World Championships were enormous, sometimes absurd.

And the almost three-week stay in Bhubaneswar has challenges and surprises in store every day.

Of which coaches and players sometimes don't notice much because they are the first to reach team manager Feuerhake. In his real professional life, the 40-year-old is one of the masters of the Frankfurt airspace, as an air traffic controller at the German air traffic control in Langen. Although he was never really active in this sport, his passion for hockey drives him to a part-time job that requires a lot of time and idealism and promises little fee.

For several years, Feuerhake was the team manager of the men's team at SC Frankfurt 1880. For three years he has been in this position in the service of the German Hockey Association (DHB).

He has already prepared and accompanied a U-18 European Championship under Corona conditions in Valencia in the spring.

But the trip to India with the U21 is a completely different house number.

"It could be so easy if there wasn't a pandemic," says Feuerhake on the phone from India.

The German team is housed in a four-star hotel, but is practically not allowed to leave the eleventh floor assigned to them.

Energy bar with the pliers

For training and games - after three victories against group opponents Pakistan, Argentina and Egypt, the quarter-final match against Spain is on this Wednesday - with a police escort. The group only takes off the FFP2 masks (700 pieces were in the luggage) at meals and in the double rooms. Feuerhake noted 70 liters of disinfectant on the long packing list.

The hygiene measures go so far that the energy bars on the playing field are cut open for the players and served on trays. The bars are then literally put in the players' mouths with small pliers, so that they do not have to touch anything in the hockey stadium except their hockey stick. An air filter that you brought with you hums in the room where the medical department works. Anyone who becomes infected with the corona virus during the tournament has to spend a two-week quarantine in a hospital room in Bhubaneswar - which has a deterrent and effective disciplinary effect on the German entourage, as Feuerhake says.

The constant rapid and PCR tests have long been part of the routine of the junior selection.

Rules on how to use elevators only with members of the entourage have become second nature.

Even in the weeks before departure, Frankfurt's Feuerhake invested many hours in organizing the trip, which is to be crowned with a medal, if possible the gold one for the world champion.

Visa, insurance, certificates, communication with the hotel, the international and the Indian hockey federation.

And of course the planning of the luggage.

The medical department headed by team doctor Robert Gorzolla alone needed three physiotherapy beds and four boxes of 30 kilograms of material.

The former U-21 national goalkeeper is an orthopedist and trauma surgeon in a Hofheim hospital and has been a team doctor at SC Frankfurt 1880 for many years.

Now the players have been eating Indian food from the hotel kitchen since their arrival - "We are taken into consideration when it comes to the degree of spiciness," says Feuerhake with a smile. But the team manager also ensures that familiar taste experiences are included. 80 kilograms of muesli, 40 kilograms of shrink-wrapped bread and no less than 1,000 so-called squeezers, in this country mostly small fruit bags for children, were part of the equipment.

“The Quetschies pull the boys away well,” says Feuerhake. So good that parents of players arriving for the main tournament bring a suitcase full with them. Feuerhake also ordered 30 glasses of pesto from the parents so that the players' noodles would not miss an Indian, but an Italian taste for a change. For example, when Feuerhake wants to order UHT milk, he sends pictures of the products via mobile phone to the local supervisor assigned by the Indian hockey association. He was a bit puzzled when Feuerhake ordered 3,000 water bottles straight away.

And how do you avoid the warehouse fever after twelve days on the eleventh floor of the team hotel?

By allowing the players to play a few minutes of football every morning in the hotel entrance.

By reserving the hotel pool only for Germans at selected times - but the players should avoid getting water on their faces as much as possible.

Game consoles were also in the luggage, as was a table tennis net, as well as card and board games.