The Orange Epidemic

Just before a major international football tournament there is a certain atmosphere in the country. A small part of the population has absolute faith in "our boys" and starts to decorate house and street until all is completely orange. Weeks in advance the decorating starts and plans are made. Big screens out in the street, barrels of beer, the party is planned. Then you get the cynics, the ones who are sure that we'll be out first round, not a hope of winning anything. And they will not get carried away, they make an effort of ignoring the orange around them, they are way above such madness. And then there is the small group who is genuinely not interested, who really don't know when the games are, have no idea which other teams take part.

Then there is the commercial side, all the orange goodies that are given away for free by supermarkets, certain brands of beer, and other shops and companies. One supermarket gives out a kind of subbuteo dolls of all the players, yes, you can collect the whole side. The national lottery hands out cards of all the players. Another supermarket hands out plastic lion cubs with orange manes. It means that I had to avoid spending over 15 Euros there, for fear of ending up with one. I hear they've run out now. Another shop sells great roaring lion shirts, orange, of course. And this is a great time for ships selling big screen televisions. It is quite amazing to think about, really. Grown men and women must start thinking all this up way in advance. They need to decide what to do, get designers in to do the drawing, order everything from China. Lots of men in suits discussing little plastic toys to give away.



If you believe what you see on the news and television commercials the whole country is dressed in orange now and we have all decorated our houses. If you go out on the streets, at least here in Amsterdam, it isn't quite like that yet.

As the tournament progresses, if things go well, however, the party faction gains support and momentum. The cynics slowly get into the party mood, they start watching the games. Suddenly they also talk about "our boys". And the sea of orange gradually spreads across the country. Where last week you saw just a few orange flags outside the cafes, you already see a little more now. And as the tournament progresses that will increase. If the team keeps winning, of course.



The Dutch team won the European championship in 1988, and the whole country went mad. The team's reception in Amsterdam, and their tour around the canals meant a lot of damaged houseboats, some even sank. The best commercial I've seen about the championship so far is one where you see a couple sitting on their couch watching Holland win the final. You can see the fear in their eyes, as the camera slowly moves back and shows them through the window of their houseboat.