Uniforms turn fans into soccer army
Chinese soccer fans supporting their team at the World Cup in South Korea next month will wear red and white uniforms similar to the team's and donated by the electronics giant Samsung, a senior sports official said yesterday.
Huang Yi, general manager of China's World Cup organising committee, said it chose the fans' uniform after looking carefully at the strips used by foreign teams.
'We are preparing for the future. We must have unified colours. All this has been organised by the Government,' he said.
The fans' uniform comprises a red hat and a white T-shirt with a red V and the two Chinese characters for China, as well as the Samsung logo in white.
Samsung Electronics is donating nearly 20,000 of the uniforms and will be the sole supplier. It is one of several large South Korean firms using the World Cup to promote its products in China.
China is keen to emulate the South Korean fans' organisation, which has helped make the country one of the top soccer nations in Asia, enabling it to co-host the tournament with Japan.
Korean fans wear identical outfits and, roused by cheerleaders, chant and sing accompanied by drums and other instruments.
Chinese fans will greatly outnumber those from the three countries China is scheduled to play on June 4, 8 and 13 - Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey, which gave back some of their ticket allocations because they could not find enough fans to buy them.
That lack of demand enabled China to obtain about 15,750 tickets, which started to arrive from the printer in England this week - up from China's original allocation of 10,000. A VIP ticket to watch all three games costs US$1,950 (HK$15,170).
