Soccer Mania!

The chaos of the World Soccer Championships (EM) has officially arrived. The opening ceremonies are on Saturday in Vienna and the first game, against Croatia, is on Sunday.

As one of the host cities, Vienna has been preparing for months. Today, two days before the opening, the results are quite visible. The subway has been extended to travel to the stadium (about twice as far as it used to travel), the city center has been turned into a “fan zone” completely closed off from traffic, and even all the shops are selling soccer-ball-shaped merchandise. Everything has suddenly become “the official _____ of the European Championships”.

As with all large spectator events, a certain amount of public drunkenness and other idiocy is to be expected. For this reason, there will be increased visibility of police officers on the streets for the duration of the championships. This has apparently already taken effect. I was downtown this afternoon and saw at least five pairs of police officers--always one male, one female--on the streets within a span of twenty or so blocks. Nearly 1,000 police officers from the team-countries have been sent to Vienna for the month of June. 881 of the officials come from Germany; the rest are from Russia, Greece, Sweden, Spain, Croatia, and Poland. Austria will also have 27,000 of its own police officers on duty. However, only the officers from Austria and Germany will take part in crowd and traffic control. The other officers will be posted at train stations and airports to answer any questions from the people of their respective countries.

Vienna has also published various guides for tourists and residents about the championships and what to expect. Among other interesting and amusing information, the guide features lists of items prohibited and allowed in the fan zone.

Items forbidden in the fan zone include:
Alcohol and drugs
Large backpacks
Bicycles, roller blades, and helmets
Glass bottles, aluminum cans, glasses
Knives, stones, and other weapons
Animals except seeing-eye dogs
Advertisements and racist propaganda
Professional photography, audio-recording, and video-recording
Signs larger than 2 x 1.5 m

Items allowed include:
Wallet
Keys
Cell phone
Walkman, Discman, MP3-player
Drinks in Tetrapack up to 0.33 L
Children’s drinks in plastic bottles up to 0.25 L
Walking aides, if necessary

These are just the lists for the fan zone. The lists for the actual stadium are certainly much stricter, though I have yet to see them.

The entire city of Vienna is in a state of excited anticipation. Let the games begin!

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One last note: If this entry seems a bit choppy, it’s because I’m having a hard time translating German thoughts into English writing. The longer I stay in Vienna, the further removed from English I become and if I hadn’t been forced to teach this year, who knows how bad my writing would be by now! This is why you should all start learning German before I come back to the US, or at least join me in the corruption of the English language!