On Düsseldorf’s Karplatz, a handsome Italian man juggles a foam ball and challenges any fan wearing a shirt other than blue. A few metres away, waiters are also balancing their trays between high wooden tables where mugs of beer, sausages and prominent German meatballs reveal a large and playful international competition that is played out amid drinks and cheering chants of identity.
Based on demand and ticket sales, UEFA claims that the European Championship is on track to beat the record of 2,427,303 fans who attended the 2016 edition of the tournament. Even before the 24-team field was complete, demand for tickets had already reached 50 million. UEFA sold 2.3 million tickets before the tournament began. It then put a first wave of 93,147 on sale, which will increase as the qualifiers begin today with Italy-Switzerland (18:00, TVE) and Germany-Denmark (21:00, TVE).
After the multi-venue Euro 2021 that expanded the tournament to the four corners of the continent, with pandemic restrictions still in place in most of the host countries. After the imposture that filled many of the stands of Qatar’s luxurious World Cup stadiums with fake fans, football fans are reliving the traditional purism of their homeland at this Euro. modus vivendi. In some way, and despite the inflationary problems that increase the costs of accommodation and maintenance, it can be said that the fan has recovered football in a great competition.
In Germany, in the heart of old Europe stressed by the war in Ukraine, the Israeli destruction of Gaza, Islamic terrorism and the rise of the extreme right, the social dimension of football has generated the particular recreational oasis that has always emerged for fans. in major national team competitions. The fans fill the stadiums without needing to be subsidized by the organizing committee, the central train stations are hives of football nomads who jump from city to city following their teams and the old town centers of the host cities become melting pots of nationalities that chrome the terraces and sidewalks of Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Cologne, Leipzig and Frankfurt.
The proliferation of Scottish kilts is one of the most distinctive and picturesque features of the landscape of this European Championship. On the outskirts of Dortmund’s Westfalenstadion, Tommy, a forty-something Scot, seems to have pinkened his cheeks and calves. “We come from Edinburgh, we are a group of eight who have chosen Dortmund because there are other venues nearby. We go to the Scotland matches and buy tickets for others that are played here and in the surrounding area. We will be there until the quarter-finals, it is our holiday,” he says while soothing his throat with a can of beer taken from a country fridge.
Supermarkets are another very popular meeting point for the purchase of food and drinks for less well-off fans. A third of the first beer consumed in any of the crowded ones fanzone or in kiosks under stadiums, the price can rise to nine euros because three euros are charged for a glass and are refundable upon return. Hotels are recording high occupancy despite the fact that prices have doubled and tripled in many establishments. Campsites set up in the forests on the outskirts of the host cities have also seen a considerable increase in users.
Without the distance and high cost of travelling to Qatar and without the need to travel across the continent from end to end as in Euro 2021, fans can enjoy the gastro-party and cultural tourism, for those who like, that occurs at a Euro or a World Cup. “We have come to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our fifth and we are delighted. People seem to want to enjoy themselves, we go out almost every night and we have not seen a fight. Let’s hope the ultras don’t spoil it,” says David, a journalist from Burgos. So far, security, with a high number of undercover police officers among the fans, has avoided scenes of violence beyond some fights that have been immediately put down. In this respect, for the moment, fans have also returned to football.
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