Let the Football Begin - World Cup Memories
Article by Alan HoughtonClick here to follow e-Football on Twitter!
With the 2014 World Cup only days away, the excitement is building up for football fans around the world. 32 of the world’s best teams from the four corners of the globe will compete in Brazil, the most successful country in World Cup history. We’ve all got our own teams to support but the prospect of watching the different styles of football and the superb skills of the top players is mouth watering. It’s a cup competition and there will be shock results. Some well fancied teams will disappoint and some unfancied teams will do themselves proud. For some players it will be their finale while some unknown players may become stars.
The high percentage of foreign players playing in the Premier League and Championship means that a lot of the players this time are well known to English fans, while the popularity of the Champions League means that even more of the world stars are household names. For Bolton fans, we have an interest in South Korea as Chung-Yong Lee is their vice-captain. With the increase in the loan system, fans of many English teams at all levels can claim vicarious interest in top international players, while fans of other teams can take pride in players who started out or developed at their club before their break into the big time. In this way, Bolton fans have an interest in Gary Cahill, Daniel Sturridge and Jack Wilshire, who all came on leaps and bounds while they were at Bolton.
The World Cup has an unique atmosphere which I was fortunate to experience in 2006 in Germany. The British press had done their usual best to predict all the bad things they could imagine. I was going to Leipzig in the old East Germany, where far right Neo Nazi thugs were going to make it very unpleasant for any coloured teams and supporters. What a load of rubbish! The teams and fans from all countries could not have been made more welcome. I got tickets for the Iran vs Angola game and also watched the France vs South Korea game in the Fan Fest in the centre of Leipzig. The atmosphere was brilliant throughout and I had a wonderful time and came back with many magical memories.
The summer of 2006 in that part of Germany was hot and sunny every day I was there. On the days when I didn’t go to a match, I was able to enjoy the other games on TV in the garden of my lady friend’s residence with a good supply of cool beer. As I was heard to remark at the time, “Good football, good beer and a good woman, what more could a man want?”There was some debate about the order I put things in but the sentiments were spot on. Life doesn’t get much better at my age.
We travelled on the double-decker trains up to Leipzig for the matches. The Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is the world’s largest station in terms of floor area. Flyer leaflets for all kinds of things were distributed to arriving fans, including ones offering a World Cup special 25% discount at the local brothels for football fans. The contrast in the cultures was fascinating. The French were walking around Leipzig singing the ‘Marseillaise’ like an invading army while the South Koreans were out in their tens of thousands in their bright red, respectfully chanting their support for their own team.
On one street corner, a young Argentinian couple dressed in their finery, were giving a demonstration of the tango with the help of a ghetto-blaster. The Brazilian fans had taken over another garden bar and were having their own carnival in their green and yellow colours.
Street vendors were out in force and there were plenty of food available with the wurst stalls offering a fantastic variety of hot dogs including the unfortunately named ‘Knackers’.
Four days later and we were back in Leipzig for the Iran vs Angola game. It was about a 10 minute walk to the Leipzig Arena and there was plenty of time to stop for a beer, which was at normal prices. Unlike the English at the 1996 EUROs, Germany did not inflate all the prices at the World Cup. In Manchester in 1996, they were even charging to get into a pub near Old Trafford. At the stadium is where all the sponsorships kick-in with FIFA imposing a ban on any fans wearing T-shirts displaying logos of non-sponsoring companies. We were sat with the Iranian fans and they were telling is that the German police were stopping any Iranian fans from wearing the old Iranian flag following orders from the new hard-line regime in Iran. Adidas gave me the chance to get a grip of two good looking models for a photo shoot while Hyundai offered free face painting in the colours of your favourite team. Budweiser provided the beer in special World Cup commemorative plastic glasses, which you could take to your seats to enjoy and home later if you wanted a memento. The match ended in a 1-1 draw and was memorable for Iran’s first point in the World Cup finals. Flavio put Angola ahead early in the second half and the commentator’s nightmare, Bakhtiarizadeh equalised with fifteen minutes to go. The result meant both teams were eliminated. The match also gave me a preview of a player Big Sam Allardyce signed for Bolton Wanderers after the World Cup, Andranik Teymourihan, who is in this year’s Iranian World Cup squad. He became the first Christian to captain the Iran national team and is currently playing for Esteghlal in the Iran Pro League.
The World Cup really is a festival of football for everyone to enjoy. Although there will be intense rivalries, it should bring people together from all over the world with the common love of football. Let the football begin.
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