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Dutch made to watch games in their pants! (more FIFA bonkers behaviour)



Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,529
Back in Sussex
From The Guardian.


For Dutch football fans it has become the summer's cult outfit. Over the past few months, a quarter of a million Holland supporters have bought themselves a pair of patriotic orange lederhosen - wearing them whenever Holland take to the pitch in the World Cup.

But when Holland fans turned up on Friday to watch their team play the Ivory Coast, wearing the garish trousers, officials from Fifa were not amused.

The lederhosen carry the name of a Dutch beer, Bavaria.


The only problem is that the Dutch brewery which makes Bavaria is not an official World Cup sponsor. And so, in one of the most surreal incidents of the World Cup so far, stadium officials in Stuttgart made the supporters take their trousers off - leaving many of them to watch Holland's 2-1 victory in their underpants.

"They put our trousers in the bin," said an aggrieved Peer Swinkels, the chairman of Bavaria, Holland's second biggest brewery. "Fans going into the stadium had to dump them in a big container. Fifa said that the supporters could get them back afterwards. But the container was full of rubbish so most people didn't bother. I understand that Fifa wants to protect its sponsors. But this is very strange."


Critics say the decision to make more than 1,000 Dutch fans strip off last Friday is evidence of the extraordinary lengths to which Fifa has gone to protect the interests of World Cup sponsors - at the expense of ordinary fans. Fifa, however, says it has done nothing wrong and is entitled to defend itself against what it calls "ambush marketing".

Fifa said its six suppliers and 15 official partners - among them Yahoo, McDonald's and the American brewery that makes Budweiser - had spent €700m (£480m) on the tournament. Without their money, it would be impossible to stage the competition, it said.


But the zeal with which Fifa guards its commercial interests has gone down badly with fans - as has its decision to offer 14% of all match tickets to sponsors. Only 8% have gone to national football associations.

"It's ridiculous," said Sjoerd Schreurs, a Dutch supporter who had to take his trousers off. "I queued for 25 minutes to get in. When I reached the front, an official told me: 'You're not getting in like that'. I took my trousers off. I managed to chuck them over the fence to some friends. But another official spotted them and took them away.'


"I watched the game in my pants," Mr Schreurs, 33, added. "Fortunately I had quite a long T-shirt."

Mr Swinkels dreamed up the idea of orange Leeuwenhose, or lion trousers, last year. Dutch fans who purchased 12 cans of Bavaria beer could buy the trousers for just €7.95 (they come with the tail of a lion, Holland's national symbol, and two extra large pockets for storing beer cans).


Holland's biggest brewery, Heineken, the official sponsor of the Dutch football association, didn't like the trousers either. It took legal action against Bavaria but lost - after a Dutch judge ruled that fans could wear whatever they wanted.

Mr Swinkels has written to Fifa's president, Sepp Blatter, asking whether Dutch fans would have to remove their trousers again when Holland take on Argentina on Wednesday in Frankfurt. "Since when can a sponsor determine what supporters wear?" he wrote, pointing out: "Orange clothing and symbols are part of the national heritage of the Netherlands."


But some industry experts say Fifa's intervention was no surprise. Nigel Currie, chairman of the European Sponsorship Association, said: "My view is that if there is a deliberate attempt to ambush an event, it should be stamped on."

Mr Currie, who is also director of the sports marketing agency brand Rapport, said: "Sponsors pay huge amounts of money and it is all about TV exposure. If people are caught on screen drinking the wrong kind of drink, it is unhelpful to sponsors. But it should come down to commonsense and a sense of proportion."


There were also allegations yesterday that England supporters at last Thursday's Trinidad and Tobago match were forced to hand over Nike clothing at the entrance of the stadium in Nuremberg, because Adidas - the German sportswear giant and Nike's deadly rival - is the official World Cup sponsor. Last night, however, Fifa denied that any Nike clothing had been confiscated.
 

JJ McClure

Go Jags
Jul 7, 2003
10,800
Hassocks
It's a wonder no-one has posted about this story before :rolleyes:
 

Publius Ovidius

Well-known member
Jul 5, 2003
45,891
at home
GOSBTS
 




Les Biehn

GAME OVER
Aug 14, 2005
20,610
f***ing xxxxx, I'm fed up with this scum ruining the game I love.:angry: :angry:
 

Man of Harveys

Well-known member
Jul 9, 2003
18,726
Brighton, UK
Les Biehn said:
f***ing xxxxx, I'm fed up with this scum ruining the game I love.:angry: :angry:
I know, so am I. But their disputatious, horse-faced team of divers qualified, so that's that I guess.
 
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Mr Banana

Tedious chump
Aug 8, 2005
5,481
Standing in the way of control
The stewards at Wycombe do similar things. During the semi-legendary nicking of the loudspeaker from the safety box there a couple of seasons back I also managed to don a truly fetching pair of flourescent steward trousers, which i was almost forcibly stripped of after the game.
 

JJ McClure

Go Jags
Jul 7, 2003
10,800
Hassocks
Benny Zamora said:
The stewards at Wycombe do similar things. During the semi-legendary nicking of the loudspeaker from the safety box there a couple of seasons back I also managed to don a truly fetching pair of flourescent steward trousers, which i was almost forcibly stripped of after the game.

That was quality "where's your megaphone, where's your megaphone":lolol:
 

Mr Banana

Tedious chump
Aug 8, 2005
5,481
Standing in the way of control
Yeah, it was by far my proudest moment as an Albion fan and I can't wait to witter throatily about it to my awed grandkids in between chugging on a pipe and cacking my incontinence pants, they'll think I was such a rebel.

I'm like a budget Andy Rumble.
 
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tainan

New member
Jul 5, 2003
170
How much of the tv coverage is focussed on the fans trousers?
Bavaria will get more exposure (excuse the pun) from FIFA not letting them in, and the official sponsors will get -ve publicity.
 

ali jenkins

Thanks to Guinness Dave
Feb 9, 2006
9,896
Southwick
Benny Zamora said:
The stewards at Wycombe do similar things. During the semi-legendary nicking of the loudspeaker from the safety box there a couple of seasons back I also managed to don a truly fetching pair of flourescent steward trousers, which i was almost forcibly stripped of after the game.

i was at that game, it was one of my first away games and it was the megaphone incident that got me hooked on away days!!

Thank you Benny
 

BHA Jordan

New member
Dec 14, 2005
604
Benny Zamora said:
The stewards at Wycombe do similar things. During the semi-legendary nicking of the loudspeaker from the safety box there a couple of seasons back I also managed to don a truly fetching pair of flourescent steward trousers, which i was almost forcibly stripped of after the game.
Superb, I remember that day very well as you were stood to my left, and I remember seeing you get a ticking off from the steward after the sit-in.

But back on the subject, why don't the Dutch fans wear no pants or boxers, then see what fifa say about letting them in starkers
 

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