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Austria flaunts quirkiness for Euro 2008
By Sylvia Westall
VIENNA (Reuters) - With yob insurance, football-shaped cakes and 100 life-size
statues of former soccer hero Hans Krankl, joint host Austria is gearing
up for Euro 2008 in its own special way.
In a country better known for mountains and Mozart than midfielders, gradual
preparations for the three-week tournament are taking on a distinct Austrian
flavor.
To make football fans feel welcome in Vienna, organizers are erecting
plastic Krankl statues to blend into a city already dotted with stone
statues of Austrian composers, philosophers and political figures.
Krankl helped the Alpine nation to beat West Germany in a 1978 World Cup
match, which led to the defending world champions being eliminated.
Retailers around the capital are stacking their shop windows with soccer
ball-shaped smoking pipes, black-and-white cups and ashtrays as well as
porcelain cows painted in red and white -- Austria's national colors.
CREMATION URN
Vienna's renowned cake makers are busying themselves by carefully icing
Euro 2008-themed cakes.
Not everyone sees the June 7-29 event, being hosted jointly with Switzerland,
as a good thing for Austria: the Viennese are being encouraged to buy
vandalism insurance for fear of gangs of hooligans rampaging through the
capital's immaculate cobbled streets.
"The 2008 European Championship is a brilliant event for football
fans. But winning games doesn't just bring joy, it can also mean malicious
damage to front doors, buildings, fittings and furnishings in local businesses,"
Vienna Insurance Group said in a statement.
Fifteen euros will buy 2,500 euros' ($3,863) worth of vandalism cover
during the tournament.
For anyone dying as football fever sweeps the country, Vienna's leading
funeral company is offering a football-shaped cremation urn for 362 euros.
ART LOVERS
Even the national lottery has decided to decorate its lottery balls with
a football pattern in an attempt to spark Euro 2008 fever in the country.
The hosts are hoping the enthusiasm will help tourism to thrive. Austria
wants to turn visiting fans into keen art connoisseurs and mountain hikers
by promoting the country's traditional attractions on Euro 2008 posters.
Switzerland has taken a similar route, with an advertising campaign that
boasts blonde Alpine damsels as footballers' wives and girlfriends.
"Switzerland: even more spectacular than football!" the national
tourism site reads next to a mock football commentary video showing a
man milking a cow in the mountains.
ca.reuters.com,
9 May 2008
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