BRUSSELS: A desperate group of Belgian fans, fed up with no team to support at Euro 2012 after their team failed to qualify, have found some buyers after they put themselves up for “sale” on eBay — their Dutch neighbors.
The fans set up a Facebook group — ‘Belgian soccer fans for sale for Euro 2012’ which has grown to 20,000 members, explaining they needed someone to shout for and would donate any proceedings from a buyer to UNICEF.
“Second hand but mint condition. Not been used since FIFA World Cup 2002.
“Once again we Belgians have no team to root for at the Euro 2012 soccer championship. Since tournaments are much more fun when you have a favorite team, we decided to put our fandom for sale at ebay,” the group said, adding they would offer their allegiance to the highest bidder
“All profits will be sent directly to Unicef.”
An anonymous Dutch buyer stepped in and will donate the 3,000 euros to Nordschool, a UNICEF project providing education to children living in countries hit by conflict, one of the fans told Belgian daily Vers l’Avenir.
“Once the team is eliminated,” the group explained, “we will grieve for 24 hours and then put ourselves for sale again on ebay. Hopefully joined by the previous winner since he or she will also have become an orphaned soccer fan by then.”
Separately, after complaints about the grass in the Euro 2012 stadiums in Poland being too dry or too long, one Austrian firm is struggling not to gloat.
Richter Rasen supplied the pitch to three of the stadiums in Ukraine, and in none of those cases, there have been problems so far.
Poland on the other hand chose a cheaper option. "Maybe they regret it now," said company director Alexander Richter.
