On the Pitch with Germany & Turkey!
Thursday, 26 June 08, 07:47 AM · Comments(1)
The photo below is, so far, the only one I've managed to find on the web today but it will have to suffice. You can just make out my bald head next to Uefa's Unite Against Racism flag behind the turkish team. It was great that after working in the interesting, but not so exciting recently Accreditation centre, to have the opportunity to actually operate inside the stadium for once. I was asked to assist 7 others in holding on the pitch the two flags, standing right behind the Turkish team - enabling me to see rather too closely the number of Tattos on Colin Kazim Richards arms!
Like other games held at St Jakob Stadium the ground was full of "extras" watching the game from the concourse - many of whom seemed to know far more about football than the corporates and VIPs in the seats. There was a great atmosphere, particularly from the Turks, throughout the game. The Turks had 2 or 3 individuals whose job it was to stir the fans into a frenzy and they got very worked up when some fans didn't join in! I heard that there were problems with the TV coverage last night and I'm sure there was little coverage of the lone protesting fan in the second half.
After the game I was dragged into Basel by many of the other German volunteers intent on celebrating the result and I finally got home at 4.00am!
One final comment on the whole Uefa, "Unite Against Racism", campaign. It would be good if they could actually hand out much stiffer sanctions against clubs or national teams (or their fans) that exhibit racist behaviour and attitudes. Fines like this don't work and the sooner FIFA and UEFA deal with it more effectively the better.
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1 Comments · Add yours
is that you they're taking out Gooner?