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True blue Azzurri, Les Bleus fans mix with melancholy orange
Posted: Sunday July 02, 2000 01:54 PM
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- With Les Bleus of France taking on Italy's Azzurri, the Euro 2000 final spawned a flood of blue Sunday as fans streamed in from around Europe for the momentous match in Feyernoord stadium. Blow horns began honking several hours before the 8 p.m. (1800 GMT) game, signaling the showdown of the two European powerhouses, who both take pride in their blue team colors. "Forza Azzurri," screamed several Italian fans as they passed a flock of French supporters with blue "Allez La France" shirts. "It's beautiful to be here," said Sergio Monti, wearing an Italian scarf around his head. Monti drove up with two friends from their hometown outside of Florence. "I've been to the final of the Italian league," he said, "but this is my first time seeing the national team in a final." Jean Naveau, 52, and his 30-year-old son, Jean came up for the match from Chartres, just south of Paris. "We bought special tickets with the French fan club that would let us have our money back if France didn't make it to the finals," said the father. "So here we are." Another French father, holding the hand of his son -- still too young to be embarrassed -- walked proudly wearing a blue-painted face and a high wig in the blue, white and red colors of the French flag. Around the south side of the Rotterdam stadium, a group of Italian fans from England sounded their blow horns as they past two fellow Azzurri supporters from Belgium, dressed head-to-foot in blue. Les Bleus supporters who were passing by shrugged off the intercontinental camaraderie. There was at least some mixing of colors among supporters of the two teams, with one French fan sporting the yellow AC Parma jersey of Lilian Thuram. The 28-year-old defender is one of 11 members of the French squad who play or have played in Italy's Serie A. The 48,000-person capacity crowd included a 9,000-seat section reserved for Italy fans and a 9,000-seat block for France supporters, though the blue shirts and national flags of the two nations were flowing throughout the stadium. The Italian squad wore white jerseys for the game to avoid confusion. In the sea of blue, there were of course scattered drops of orange, belonging to hometown Dutch supporters who had counted on seeing their Oranje squad in the final. Kor Nederveen of Rotterdam had scored two tickets to the match, which fell on his wife's birthday. "My wife was so happy we had tickets to the finals, but she's not here today because she's ill -- she's been sick since Holland lost," said Nederveen, shaking his head. "It would have been 100 times more beautiful if Holland was playing. Today I'm rooting for soccer to win." Not everyone came to the sold-out match with tickets. Georges Desoust, 24, was not smiling under his blue, white and red joker hat. "It's very difficult to find tickets," said Desoust, after circling the stadium repeatedly since arriving from St. Quentin, France at 1 p.m. "But we will keep trying." Desoust said scalpers were asking 1,700 French francs (US$250) for the cheapest seats available.
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