Last Friday some friends and I visited the Zurich FanZone. It was the game Croatia vs. Turkey which ended in Turkeys favor. But first things first…
We arrived in the game break, which was about the worst time to arrive. There were endless queues in front of the Food- and Beer stalls. After some queuing we finally got our „beer“ (I put the word beer in „’s on purpose, as it was Carlsberg). Now we made our way to my Girlfriends stall. She works in the FanZone since the beginning and I only saw her sleeping. But anyhow, I’m so proud!
Just across her stall there was a TV screen and we followed the penalty kicking after extension. The spectators were quite peaceful. No serious trouble inside the FanZone. Both Fan blocks were quite heated up, but they remained peaceful.
I had about 3/4 of my mug still filled with beer. After the turks won, the S.W.A.T. Team of the Police cleared out the complete Fan-Zone. We got thrown out roughly including our beer. I couldn’t even agree on a meeting-spot with my girlfriend. It’s not really nice feeling a beating stick in your back.
We moved out of the FanZone before we would get „escorted“ out and waited in the McDonalds nearby. I’ve sent my Girlfriend an SMS where we would wait.
All in all, the visit to the FanZone was enjoyable, except for the exiting-part. I got the feeling that the police was scared. OK, it was a high-risk meeting, but still. I think they over-reacted a bit.
Just my two cents