Euro
2004 Naar
FSI NL
Fans Embassies & Fans Embassy Workers
Euro 2004
….. with the accent on festival
Euro 2004, the
world’s third largest event, will have a major impact on the image of football,
as well as the image of Portugal. It is therefore important that the
organization of Euro 2004 should focus on projecting a positive image. How the
event is experienced by the thousands of visiting supporters and the local
people, will determine that image to a large extent.
For Euro 2004 to
be regarded as a football festival, the event must be projected as a festival
in all its aspects. It is the task of the organizers to promote and stimulate
it as a great football festival, to be jointly celebrated by fans from all
countries. If the organizers concentrate on achieving this in every detail, the
isolated instances when the concept has to be directed towards maintaining
order and safety will be the exception to the rule, rather than being the norm
for the entire event.
In the interests
of creating the right conditions under which Euro 2004 can develop into a
football festival, it is vital that the provision of services and information
for visiting supporters should receive top priority, and that the local population
should also be taken into account. This concept describes the elements which
should guarantee that visiting supporters will be properly hosted and explains
the significance and functions of fans embassies and fans embassy workers,
followed by a description of how activities concerned with hosting the
supporters can be coordinated via a coordination centre. The last item is a
list of measures needed to ensure that fans receive the best possible support.
It should be
emphasized that this is not intended as a blue-print for working with fans
embassy workers, but rather as a number of organizational and operational
concepts which will enable fans embassy workers to carry out their function.
Naturally, the specific local organizational setting is mandatory. It is
therefore obvious that the practical working methods of fans embassy workers
will be adapted to suit local conditions. Fans embassy workers will, of course,
have to deal with a number of current (national and local) initiatives
concerning security, the provision of services, events and logistics. Their
working methods should be properly adapted and carried out accordingly. The
fact that each tournament town has a different approach, must be regarded as
necessary to the town’s organization, and should be seen as a challenge by the
fans embassy workers. This diversity must be taken into account when evaluating
the process and effect of working with fans embassies and employing fans
embassy workers. Drawing comparisons between the different local measures is an
absolute necessity, and will result in valuable information about their
efficacy and added value. Moreover, the diversity of local adaptations does not
detract from the clearly recognizable concept of fans embassies and fans
embassy workers, as far as designation, function profile, recognition, concept
and structure are concerned.
What is shown to the world: a festival of football and friendship between supporters or a battleground for hooligans?
In June 2004 more then 1.5
million football fans will come to Portugal to be part of the Euro 2004
football championships event. And with the supporters and the football players
hundreds of journalist and TV crews from all over the world will be there to
cover this unique football experience. Of course Portugal and the Euro 2004
organization will do their best to show the world the beauty of Portugal, it’s
culture, it’s hospitality, the enthusiasm of the Portuguese people for football
and the friendly atmosphere in which thousands of fans celebrate their passion
for football. But it is good to keep in mind that in the 22 days of Euro 2004
there are less then 47 hours of football and 481 hours in which no matches are
played. And all this time the many journalists and TV reporters are looking for
news items, pictures of supporters, football related events or whatever they
can find to fill the hunger of the millions throughout the world that want to
taste a little bit of the Euro 2004 atmosphere. Here lies a tremendous task to
keep the focus of the press on Euro 2004 as an event of friendship through
football instead of a narrowed focus on incidents and misbehaving supporters.
This can only be achieved if there is enough positive news. The press will seek
the visiting supporters because they bring over the football atmosphere, so
give them activities for and with football supporters that show that supporters
can party in good harmony; give the press representatives of supporters groups
who have a positive story to tell or if necessary can explain that an incident
was no more than just a sad brief moment in a further friendly and beautiful
football day; give the press a tournament that is not only well organized
inside the stadiums and around the football players, but also is an example of
good and well organized hospitality with as result more than 1.5 million happy
and friendly football supporters.
Hospitality through Fans Embassies.
When in 1996 the
European Championships were to be held in England, the English authorities realised
that the world would look at this event with more than just an interest in
football. England was known as the home of hooliganism and many expected that
Euro ’96 would be a hooligans battlefield. A long history of hooliganism had
learned that hooligans seek the bigger crowd in which there is less change to
be caught by the police. The best soil for football violence is an angry crowd.
If the atmosphere is tense, supporters are treated unfriendly, if there is
uncertainty among supporters about ticketing, accommodation or transport, if
they can’t get the right information, if there is nothing to do then hanging
around and drinking, then even a friendly crowd can get angry. And hooligans
are the first to take advantage of this situation and start a battle with
police or other supporters groups, backed up by the thousands angry supporters
in the crowd. If you however keep the majority of the supporters happy by being
a good and friendly host, hooligans get isolated and their chances to disturb
the tournament are reduced. Therefore during Euro ’96 in England for the first
time so called fans embassies were established. The philosophy of fans
embassies is that fans help fans. Supporters, recruited from fans
organizations, give information to visiting fans about where to eat or drink,
which buses or trains to take, where you can find cheap accommodation, etc.
They help them if a passport is lost, someone gets ill, or whatever misfortune
a fan can have. They give service to fans when the hotelkeeper does not speak
the language or when it’s unclear where to buy tickets for the next round. In
short: they act as workers from an embassy. Fans embassies in England were run
by the Football Supporters Association FSA. The FSA cooperated with
organizations from Germany, Holland and Italy. The concept of fans embassies
was also used by the English and German fan (-workers) organizations during the
world cup ’98 in France. For Euro 2000 in the Netherlands and Belgium the
concept was further completed: every venue had a fans embassy and from the
participating countries teams of so called fan-coordinators were recruited to
give information and service to their own supporters. Because of the success of
this concept the European Council produced a handbook in which the concept is
described and recommended as a concept for all international matches and
tournaments. UEFA supports the establishing of fans embassies and has provided
financial means for this cause.
Hosting Supporters by Fans Embassy Workers (FEW)
We are FEW, but can
mean a lot to YOU.
During Euro 2004,
it is estimated that 1.5 million football enthusiasts from 14 different
countries will come to Portugal. Many of them will arrive the day before a
match, or on the day of the match itself, and will leave soon after it is over.
Many others will stay in Portugal longer, because they have tickets for several
matches, or because they have linked a (short) vacation to their visit to Euro
2004.
A number of
participating countries will send stewards to accompany the supporters from
their country. The requirements the stewards have to comply with will be
compiled by the organizers of Euro 2004 and passed on to the football
associations. These stewards escort the supporters on their organized trips,
from the point of departure in their own country, into the stadium, and back
again to the point of return in their own country. The functions and tasks of
these stewards inside the stadium will be determined by the organizers of Euro
2004, but are also tied to the existing Portuguese and UEFA qualification
requirements, rules and regulations for stewards.
Supporters who
have made their own arrangements to visit the tournament, and those who have
chosen a prolonged visit to the host countries during the tournament, do not
directly fall under the responsibility and attention of the Euro 2004
organizers. In the first instance, the relevant Ministry should bear this
responsibility, and secondly, the tournament towns. The care of this latter
category of supporters is much more extensive. It includes not only hosting the
supporters, but mainly ensuring that they have a pleasant and undisturbed stay
in the host countries. This category will also require the necessary services
and entertainment. A large number of the resulting tasks will devolve on the
tournament towns, however, these provisions must not stop at the town limits. A
well structured network of information, services and support is urgently
required.
The European
Council has produced a handbook in which is strongly recommended the establishment
of fans embassies and the use of embassy workers, coming from the fan scenes of
each country, to help and inform supporters during international matches and
tournaments. These providers of information, help and service of the visiting
countries will be called “ fans embassy workers” (FEW).
The central aim of
employing fans embassy workers is to give added value to good hospitality. The
fans embassy workers will act as teams of mobile hosts. This means that they
will accompany groups of supporters from their own country, who are not members
of an organized trip.
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Their primary task is to supply the groups with the information, help and
service they need on the spot, and to act as communication point and
intermediaries.
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In addition, the fan coordinator’s job is to signal problems which could
affect good hosting, and to report them to the coordination centre (CF) for
fans embassies and fans embassy workers. On tournament days, the embassy
workers will work in and from the fans embassies which are set up in each
tournament town.
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The fans embassy workers will also play a part in guiding supporters,
influencing processes and intervention. Depending on circumstances, groups of
supporters have more confidence in workers nominated from their midst,
especially their own countrymen. Communication with the group is then possible
(resulting in feed-back from the group), and it is likely that they will let
themselves be guided by embassy workers. When there is good communication
between fans embassy workers and others involved, measures can be adapted to
the movements of the group, and the group can be influenced to place itself
less easily in a situation which could lead to disorder (influencing the
process). Experienced fans embassy workers are also able to intervene when a
disorderly situation threatens to arise.
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The fans embassy workers are no part of the security and stewarding
system inside the stadiums. It is however important that they can continue
their tasks also during the matches inside the stadium and therefore they must
have accreditation for the matches of their teams.
Support of Fans
embassy workers by experienced fan workers.
In some European
countries there are organizations or projects with professional workers who are
experienced in working with supporters and in hosting supporters during
tournaments, using fans embassies. They have a network with the Football
Association, local and national police, local and national authorities, youth,
sports and municipal organizations and similar organizations in other
countries. Within the framework of Euro 2004, these professional fan workers
can play a supporting role, by “coaching and supporting” the fans embassy
workers of the participating countries. These coaches of the embassy workers
are called Pilots because they have to guide the fans embassy workers
through the tournament.
A fans embassy
worker should comply with the following profile:
·
he is trusted by the supporters;
·
he can communicate with and work within different groups of supporters;
·
he is a reliable partner for other parties involved.
The fans embassy
workers are recruited by the CF, and come preferably from fan organizations of
the participating countries.
Potential fans
embassy workers will be invited to undergo a 3 to 4-day training in Portugal in
April 2004. A selection procedure will take place during this training, and
those selected will be prepared for their tasks. From that time on, they will
also be expected to cooperate in their own country by distributing advance
information to the football fans (provided by each tournament town) about the
towns they will be visiting during Euro 2004.
Fans
Embassies
The Purpose of Fans Embassies
Fans embassies are
an important part of the care devoted to football fans. These are centres in
each tournament town where football fans can apply for information and help, or
just meet other football fans.
The aim of the
fans embassies is to carry out ambassadorial tasks, i.e. providing all manner
of information and coping adequately with the questions and problems presented
to them by visitors.
A fans embassy
should be centrally situated in the
tournament town and easy to reach. In a small number of exceptional
circumstances, it may be desirable to separate groups of supporters from each
other. In such cases, specially fitted buses can be used to function as mobile fans embassies for each of the
two groups of supporters.
Inside the
perimeters of the stadiums, embassy
dependences, so called fans consulates, can
be set up for those supporters who are already in the stadium area, which is
the responsibility of the Euro 2004 organizers.
Staffing of Fans Embassies.
The fans embassies
are staffed by a permanent local team:
the “home team”, consisting of volunteers specially
selected for their understanding of football supporters and their knowledge of
their home town. The home team of the fans embassies are recruited and employed
by the tournament town. They will receive training prior to the tournament.
From a certain
period before the match, until some time afterwards, the home team will be
complemented by the fans embassy workers (FEW) from the competing countries.
The FEW can use the information material available, as well as the knowledge
and direct lines which are open to the Home Team. FEW are to inform, help and
advice supporters of their own country and are expected to act as
intermediaries for their country’s fans who, for some reason, are experiencing
problems. Around match days they must be in the Fans Embassy for fans who need
advice or someone to talk to.
The fans
consulates inside the perimeters of the stadium will be manned by the Home Team
who are in close contact with the FEW from the participating countries, in case
assistance from a FEW is needed. The mobile embassies employed when groups of
supporters are separated, are manned by FEW from the participating countries.
Responsibilities of Fans Embassies
The tournament
towns are primarily responsible for setting up and equipping the fans embassy
in their town, for which they will receive support from the CF.
In the months prior
to the tournament, in consultation with the tournament towns, the CF will draw
up a script and a communication plan for each town. The tournament town’s
input, as well as that of the people involved with fans embassies and escorting
supporters, will be laid down in a protocol. During the tournament, the CF will
synchronize, coordinate and guide the fans embassy workers and their deployment
in the Fans Embassies.
Where possible
there will be “fans-friendly’s” organized on or around match days: football
matches between supporter teams of the countries that play a match in that
specific town. These “fans-friendly’s” are to promote friendship between fans
of different countries, cultures and colours. The “fans-friendly’s” will be
organized by the embassy “home team” in cooperation with the fans embassy
workers of the playing countries, the local authorities, local police and FARE
(Football Against Racism Europe).