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| July 10, 2006 | Monday | Jumadi-ul-Sani 13, 1427 |
Final countdown in France and Italy
PARIS, July 9: Football fervour was at a peak in France and Italy on Sunday as the last hours were anxiously counted down to the World Cup final opposing the two countries in Berlin later in the evening.
Giant screens were being erected to take in the action, Rome's traffic was expected to grind to a halt, the Eiffel Tower was geared up to sparkle all night and thousands of police and medical workers were put on high alert.
From Bologna to Boulogne, Rennes to Rimini, giant screens rose in town and city centres, and cafe owners spread chairs out in front of television sets before the match which got under way at 1800 GMT.
Workers erected three giant screens, including one of 50 square metres (538 square feet) on the Circo Massimo — an arena reserved for chariot races in ancient Rome — although there was concern whether the 100,000 to 200,000 expected crowd would actually be able to see the massive screen in the early evening light.
In France, managers of the the country's most famous monument, the Eiffel Tower, said it would glitter and sparkle throughout the night in celebration should the French win.
Security was at the forefront of plans for the football festivities after numerous violent incidents in both countries, including five ‘accidental’ deaths in France and molotov cocktail attacks on police in Italy following semi-final matches.
The French capital and its region was to mobilise some 4,000 police officers, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday, with up to 1.5 million supporters expected to pour onto the streets of Paris should ‘Les Bleus’ take sport's most prized trophy.
Security was due to be especially tight in city suburbs which witnessed widescale rioting last November over unemployment and living conditions.—AFP
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