Travel Diary by Dave Abbott -
German Football Fever
By DAVE ABBOTT
The blather from Joseph S. Blatter, the president of FIFA, on the eve of this year's 2006 World Cup of Football, was lofty stuff. "Universality is our guiding force" he said; "FIFA is a beacon of hope," he added.
Like the IOC he was evoking a dream that sport fosters global amity and that the football teams would be free from the influence of the state and marketplace. The occasion, for the most part, lived up to those ideals. There were few outbreaks of violence on or off the field although 300 English yobbos were barred from the stadium when England was playing.
Host of the World Cup of Football, or soccer as some call it, was Germany, a formerly divided nation, home to great beer, buxom Frauleins, fast cars, spicy sausages, a reputation for efficiency and football fever while remaining humorless, held the biggest bash to hit the country since the collapse of the Berlin Wall.
Many viewed the celebrations as Germany's post-unification "coming out" party with five weeks of worldwide television coverage and a projected eight out of 10 television viewers watching World Cup soccer coverage. The final tally was an estimated one billion 400 million viewers.
The impact on tourism in Germany was extensive. Millions of visitors made the pilgrimage, including thousands of Canadians, to enjoy more than 1,500 sporting and cultural events happening every day for nearly six weeks.
Careful planning allocated games to 12 German cities (e.g. Nuremberg, Stuttgart, Munich, Dusseldorf etc). The geographic locations of various matches ensured financial benefits for the chosen cities allowing them to upgrade their stadiums, attract tourists by focusing attention on regions outside of traditional centers like Bonn and Frankfurt.
Cites like Nuremberg, with its history of the war crime trials after the Second World War, embraced the attention for it provided an opportunity for the city council to promote its historic past, even though many Germans get depressed when they show war films on television!
One friend, who is soccer mad, spent a month in Germany traveling the country to see as many games as possible. He was reticent to admit his bill was over C$700 per day (a medium hotel room, meals, local train travel and game tickets), airfare not included. Scalpers demanded EU1,000 to EU3,000 for some matches. Add an additional 50 percent for Canadian dollars.
The cup final in Berlin, once sealed-off by East German communists, accelerated the gentrification of the city with a new central railway station (US$2 billion) and a revamped soccer stadium (US$1 billion).
Three million tickets were sold but dozens of free public viewing areas were available including the Brandenburg Gate and Kaiser Wilhelm church in Berlin.
It was an exciting time to be in Germany. Every pub, cinema and public space was gripped by football fever making it the most successful football extravaganza in history bringing in at least C$3 billion in revenue.
With 32 teams representing 32 countries in the first round, substantial international attendance was guaranteed. Every continent had contingents of fans, including those from obscure and distant lands like Togo, the Ivory Coast and Ghana.
More affluent nations like Saudi Arabia, Japan, Korea, England and Mexico, to name a few, had substantial fan support as their colourful costumes attested on unprecedented television coverage.
The games themselves, whatever your ethnic origins, were, for the most part, magic. Supporters had traveled vast distances and mortgaged their lives (and probably their souls) to be there.
Togo, a tiny country smaller than West Virginia with a population of five million, has only 70,000 television sets in the entire country, yet their presence was noticeable in the stands.
When Ghana, a nation smaller than Oregon State, defeated and eliminated the super-power USA, the African nation, median income $200 per month, went wild with excitement with dancing and singing in the streets for days.
Playing World Champions Brazil in the second round brought world attention to the country and immeasurable pride. Even Trinidad and Tobago, that seems to have more islands than people, carried a measure of excitement, despite most soccer fans not knowing its actual whereabouts.
All the giants of the game were on display: Beckham, Ronaldo, Totti and Zidane, but cup favorites, Brazil, had more stars than the Milky Way!
Exotic Brazilian-females were a television magnet. The cameramen loved lingering on their physical "uniqueness," to the delight of viewers. The World Cup was cause for national anthems, flags, t-shirts, painted faces to be heralded with national pride.
In a rather bizarre cultural twist, the Anheuser Busch Company of St. Louis topped the bids for the rights to the exclusive beer concession. It didn't make sense in a country famous for its marvelous beer, until one learns the German organizers sold it to Bud Lite for US$200 million!
For soccer fans it was a feast that ended too soon. For FIFA it was a financial windfall. For Germany, it was an undeniable social, cultural and sporting success and a boost for tourism
As Arte Johnson of TV's Laugh-In would have said: "Verrry Interesting!"
Dave Abbott is heard three times daily on the Jim Pattison Radio Network at 600AM on the dial. Website: www.irishlaughter.com, or e-mail: abbott@telus.net .
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