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| June 29, 2006 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 2, 1427 |
Friendly hosts surprise fans with welcome
BERLIN, June 28: Germans are not known as the friendliest of people but the host nation has seized the chance offered by the World Cup to change that perception.
Visiting football fans from around the world have been surprised to discover exuberant, fun-loving and friendly hosts rather than the cliche of a cold, humourless and uptight nation.
“You think about them as a people who are very tough and hard,” said Victor Luque, an actuary from Mexico City.
The reality Luque and his father discovered following the Mexico team around Germany was very different.
“In the streets, outside the stadiums, in the hotels -- people have been very friendly,” said Luque, 31, travelling on a train between the cities of Leipzig and Berlin.
As one of the tournament organisers' aims was to change the way Germany is viewed abroad, the positive impressions fans take home may be more important than the result of any game.
Central to the feel-good atmosphere have been open-air Fan Fests all over the country, where millions of supporters have gathered to watch the matches on big screens, with cheap food and drink on sale and the police presence kept low-key.
“I'm surprised at how warm the welcome has been,” said Swiss fan Daniel Zueger, clad entirely in red with Swiss flags painted on his cheeks and a velvet top hat also featuring the flag.
“I didn't expect this as the relationship between the Swiss and the Germans is not all that good,” he said in Dortmund's Westfalenstadion before his team played Togo in a group game.
“The atmosphere at the fan party in the city is great.”
Even seasoned football professionals have been impressed.
“There is one thing I feel very strongly here in Germany and that is that friendship is not an empty word,” said Roger Lemerre, Tunisia's veteran French coach. “I think the German people have succeeded in bringing together all the nations.”
The friendly atmosphere has not come about entirely by chance, however. It is partly the product of a trait which will continue to be associated with Germany -- thoroughness.
Officials saw a chance to brighten the national image, long darkened by its Nazi past, and present a modern, relaxed Germany at ease with itself 16 years after unification.
“The whole world expected us to be good organisers,” said Gerd Graus, a spokesman for the organising committee.
“We always said our big challenge is to show the world that this is a country which is open to the world, that it is a tolerant country,” he said.
That idea has been behind not just the Fan Fests but everything from the ubiquitous logo featuring three brightly coloured smiling faces to the slogan “A Time To Make Friends”.
Commentators may ponder whether Germany was always always friendlier than its reputation, whether Germans have become more laid-back in recent years and whether the current good cheer is more of a temporary phenomenon caused by the World Cup.—Reuters
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