Football for Equality

"Thanks to the last minute goal by David Alaba, 2-2 was the final score between Ireland and Austria at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. It was absolutely pissing down in the stadium as 35.000 spectators witnessed the Austrian team make Giovanni Trapattoni freak out just before the final whistle. I have never heard so many throats screaming the F*** word while in the meantime the Austrians were celebrating like there was no tomorrow. This is the story of my first Fan Embassy in my role as Project Coordinator following our big success at the EURO 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

The initiators of this Fan Embassy were our Austrian ‘pro supporters’ members Tommy Gassler and David Hudelist who received local support by the Irish national team supporters ‘You Boys in Green’ under Liam Murray’s guidance. More than 2.500 Austrians found their way to the beautiful city of Dublin which offers a massive range of pubs to its citizens and guests. Beside our several lobbying meetings with national and international institutions such as FA, Police, Media and Tourism offices we provided fanzines and the all-important information to the fans that we met on the streets; as well as in the pubs.

It didn't take long until we received the first call on our 24-hour hotline. A young Austrian couple had been mugged in the city centre. It was the beginning of a story that they will tell their grandchildren: We gave our best to get them new tickets for the match by calling the institutions, using Social Media and ‘You Boys in Green’ collected money for new tickets. Somehow the Media got aware of that issue and sniffed a chance of a big story. At a friendly match between Irish and Austrian fans the next day several journalists of TV channels and newspapers were waiting for Valeria and Stefan who were just about to become famous on the Green Island. In the end they received not two but four new tickets and joined us to the match. They say pictures say more than thousand words: YouTube video here

Surprisingly, the entire Fan Embassy team spent the rest of the night in several pubs in order to experience the Irish drinking culture. I would like to thank you guys for this amazing’ experience and wish you much of success for the upcoming matches."