SA fan parks for Euro 2008
Ndaba Dlamini
5 June 2008
A number of taverns in South Africa's Gauteng province will screen UEFA Euro 2008 matches through a partnership with the embassies of host countries Austria and Switzerland.
Tavern owner Gladys Gailey looks forward to hosting hundreds of soccer fans during the UEFA Euro 2008 Cup next month.
Thanks to a partnership between the Gauteng Department of Sport, Culture and Recreation and the embassies of Austria and Switzerland, Gailey will be screening all the Euro Cup matches, from 7 to 29 June, at her tavern, The Palace Pub & Grill, in Newclare.
Preparing for 2010
"I am happy that my tavern was picked by Gauteng to be one of the public viewing places...to show the Euro Cup games to the community free of charge. This is my chance to prepare for the 2010 World Cup, which I hope will be bigger than the Euro Cup," she said.
Other taverns and clubs in Johannesburg earmarked as public viewing areas are the Backroom in Pimville, Soweto, the Hot Box in Westbury and the Bassline in Newtown.
Launching the partnership on Tuesday, 27 May, the MEC for Sport, Culture and Recreation, Barbara Creecy, said these venues would bring the Euro Cup to the people.
"All these venues have been used by the department previously in our Jazz in the Taverns programme and we know that they have suitable infrastructure for screenings of this nature and an established clientele."
'Build the love of football'
The public viewing project was part of the province's programme to "build the love of football" and raise spectator support for Euro Cup 2008 in previously disadvantaged communities, according to Creecy.
Bassline is one of the taverns earmarked for screening all Euro 2008 matches from 7 to 29 June. "We believe the initiative will attract widespread support because as we all know the winning team from Euro 2008 will represent the European League in the Confederations Cup in South Africa in 2009."
The Euro Cup, the third largest sporting event in the world after the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games, will be hosted by Austria and Switzerland. In all, 16 teams from Europe, including World Cup champions Italy, will take part.
An opportunity
Austria's secretary of state for sport, Reinhold Loptka, said the Euro Cup was an opportunity for Austria to showcase the country, just as the World Cup would be an opportunity for South Africa to showcase itself.
"We are also happy to be involved in the partnership with Gauteng to show all the Euro Cup games to communities."
The partnership involves more than screening matches locally, however. South African football experts would also attend the Euro Cup, where they would meet their Swiss and Austrian counterparts, said the deputy ambassador to Switzerland, Markus Dutly.
"The football experts will discuss security, co-ordination of the event, organisation of fan parks and other football-related matters."
Invaluable experience
Creecy said fan parks were an established part of all major football tournaments and Gauteng would acquire invaluable experience from Austria and Switzerland. "During the 2006 World Cup, about 18 million people watched games in fan parks, six times more than the number who watched games in stadiums.
"These fan parks large and small offered an important opportunity for local German businesses to benefit from the large numbers of fans through [selling] food, drinks and memorabilia in parks, taverns and street cafes," she said.
Gailey agreed, saying her tavern would definitely benefit from hosting soccer fans during the Euro Cup. At present, she served on average 150 people a day.
"But I foresee an upsurge in the number of patrons during the screening of the Euro Cup. I hope my finances will improve tremendously and [I can] expand my business before the World Cup in 2010."
Source: City of Johannesburg
