World Cup fever overtakes Ha Noi

Venues across Ha Noi are preparing for brisk business as football fans make the ever-important decision on where they”ll watch the upcoming World Cup.

The World Cup will start in Germany next week, but Cup fever has already begun in Ha Noi over the past weeks.

On the streets of the capital including Trieu Viet Vuong, Hang Hanh and Dien Bien Phu, pubs and cafes have been putting up decorations and giant TV screens in anticipation of an overwhelming rush of football fans during the World Cup.

The owners of large cafes have also set up projectors to provide even bigger screens for crazed football fans because the World Cup is not only entertaining, it is big business for these cafes.

All of the World Cup matches will be broadcast live at night in Viet Nam (midnight and 2am), so cafes have to prepare other services such as fast food, beverages and games for viewers while they wait for the matches to begin.

The Hilton Hanoi Opera is a popular destination for Europeans visiting Ha Noi and JJ”s Sports Bar at the hotel has prepared a large room for 300 fans.

“We wanted JJ”s to have a fun atmosphere so people who are far from home can enjoy the football matches,” said marketing and foreign relations executive, Nguyen Da Huong.

JJ”s Sports Bar, which has been a popular destination in Ha Noi during past World Cup and European championships, has three large screen TVs and a big screen LCD that will be open from 4pm to 1am every day. However, the bar will be open for qualifying and quarter-final matches played at 2am, provided that at least 20 people reserve seats at the bar.

Fans can also watch live matches outdoors in the swimming pool area, where up to 700 people can cool off while watching football matches on hot summer days.

All 16 suites at the hotel have been equipped with 42-inch LCD TVs to replace the old 21-inch TVs.

The five-star Hanoi Daewoo Hotel is also offering special services to attract World Cup fans.

Fans can watch matches at the Palm Court lobby lounge or Lake View sky lounge with its large LG Plasma 50-inch TV.

If fans order 3 glasses of Tiger beer they will get a complementary glass of beer and be entered in raffles for Tiger hats and T-shirts, making for a festive atmosphere in which to watch the most exciting sports event in the world.

The Daewoo will also provide free entry for all Japanese and Korean residents in Ha Noi, with large screens (1x4m) playing all of the Korean and Japanese matches.

Many places in Ha Noi will be hosting events aimed at a younger, night-time crowd like Fantasy, Ha Noi Hotel and Blue Waves Club, which will offer free admission and all-night service.

While everyone is watching the World Cup, athletes training at the national centre 1 in Nhon town near Ha Noi in preparation for the Asian Games (ASIAD) in Qatar this December, will only be allowed to watch early football matches, according to training director, Dang Ngoc Tuan.

Their strenuous training for the ASIAD in a few months means they can only see 17 matches that take place at at 8pm local time.

“The World Cup is a wonderful event. However, athletes must concentrate on training first,” Tuan said.

“But we”ll try our best to help the athletes get information on the Internet and allow them to watch taped matches when they are free after training,” he said.

Cooling off with beer

As the World Cup gets hotter and hotter in the next two weeks, Ha Noi will be experiencing its hottest days this summer. Beer is the favourite drink for men at cafes and bars in Ha Noi, and consumption will surely increase.

The owner of Blue Waves Club Tran Van Hanh said he has planned for the World Cup.

“We usually sell about 15 boxes (each box contain 50l) a day, but now we have to stock up on twice that amount of booze and food.”

The pub, located on Chua Boc Street, attracts nearly 100 fans to watch the big screen every night.

Electronics shops in Ha Noi are seizing the opportunity to win over customers flocking to buy big screen TVs.

World Cup at home

According to Nguyen Cao Khanh, a salesman at Carings Vincom in Ha Noi, the number of people who want to buy big screen TVs has increased since May, one month before the World Cup starts. The most popular choices are the 30-inch and 50-inch.

While men are likely to gather in groups at cafes or other outdoor sites around the city where they can be as rowdy as they want, women are trying to keep their husbands at home.

Lam Thi Thu Hoa from Hai Phong City asked: “Do you know how to keep my husband home during the World Cup?”

She said she sometimes feels very angry, but keeps her unhappiness to herself.

Hoa”s husband, Luong Thanh Binh, 37, a general director of a construction consulting company, explained his reasons for going out to watch the World Cup.

“I prefer watching football with friends in pubs or cafes rather than sitting at home,” Binh said.

“We cheer for our team freely without anyone complaining about the noise. Otherwise it”s not football,” he added.

Binh is a devoted football fan who even nicknamed his son Tiger” following the Southeast Asian Football Championship-Tiger Cup hosted in Viet Nam in 1998.

Hoa added that the couple had planned to have a baby who would be nicknamed World Cup” this World Cup, but they weren”t able to.

“I think I”ll try to persuade my husband and his friends to stay at home by offering lots of food and beer,” Hoa said.

Dang Thanh Hau, who works for the Phong Phu Textile Company in HCM City, said his wife bought two boxes of instant noodles for him to eat during the World Cup time at home.

Their three-month baby will have to get used to the TV noise because Hau does not want to turn down the volume. Hau said his wife To Thi Quynh Nga fell in love with football just two years after they married.

“I got her to watch football matches with me and gradually my wife started to love them too,” the 30-year-old man said.

VNS