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Euro-2008: Austria prepares to welcome Russian fans
The Austrian city of Innsbruck
is perhaps better known for hosting winter sports than football, but this
is where Russia will play two of their games at next summer's Euro-2008
Championships, which are to be co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland.
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The Tivoli Stadium / russiatoday.ru
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Innsbruck has hosted the Winter Olympics twice, in 1964
and 1976, and attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists a year to its
famous slopes. However, in around six months' time, Innsbruck will host
matches at the Euro- 2008 Championships.
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The city of Innsbruck / russiatoday.ru
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It seems the Austrians are looking forward to the Russian
team's visit, although the team don't known where they'll be staying yet.
They also play their other group match in Austria - in Salzburg. The Russian
Football Union is looking into a number of different accommodation options.
The ground where the matches will be played in Innsbruck is called the
Tivoli Stadium, and is named after a district in the city. The arena was
only able to hold around 17,000 fans last year, but has been specially
enlarged for the Championships to have a capacity of 31,000. It will return
to its original size after the tournament.
The stadium is well equipped to cope with the number of supporters, but
there is still work to be done.
Amongst other things, the dressing rooms will be renovated. However, the
VIP rooms are already complete.
Although tickets for the finals are in short supply, there's no need for
fans without tickets to despair. The fan zones - areas designed for large
numbers to watch the action on huge screens - that were so popular at
the 2006 World Cup in Germany will be making a return.
Russia
Today, December 6, 2007
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