No Such Thing As Bad Publicity

Do you remember the last World Cup in Germany when a group of Dutch supporters turned up in red dungarees which were sponsored by a well known Dutch brewer. When the supporters arrived at the turnstiles they were forced to undress and handover the offending articles of clothing. Fortunately most of the supporters weren't naked underneath. Anyhoo, it's happened again and FIFA are getting all shitty about it, due to the protective nature of the sponsors - which I suppose if you are one of their sponsors you'd be glad of such action.

FIFA ejected 36 female Netherlands fans from their World Cup match with Denmark for wearing an orange mini-dress designed by a beer company. The dresses were made by Bavaria beer and despite the outfits containing no branding, the organisers said it was against their rules on "ambush marketing".

"It's a nice dress. Very fashionable. In my opinion, people should have the right to wear whatever they want," Peer Swinkels, from Bavaria beer, told South African newspaper The Star.

Barbara Kastein, who was wearing the dress, explained what happened: "We were sitting near the front, making a lot of noise, and the cameras kept focusing on us. We were singing songs and having a good time. In the second half, about 40 stewards surrounded us and forced us to leave the stadium. They pushed us up the stairs, and one of the girls fell.The police came and kept on asking us the same questions over and over, asking if we worked for Bavaria. They said we were ambush-marketing and it was against the law in South Africa. They said we would be arrested and would stay in jail for six months. Girls were crying. It was bad."

After a few hours questioning all the girls were released although Kastein said that the police took a copy of her passport and told her they would investigate the matter further.

A few flags were also confiscated during the Group E match at Soccer City as part of FIFA's plan to protect its World Cup brands.

She looks a right troublemaker doesn't she?

According to FIFA, last Fridays post competition announcement, the only things supporters were banned from bringing into games were elephants and lions, not orange dresses.