By DPA,
Johannesburg : A group of 36 Dutch women were turned away from the Netherlands-Denmark game in Johannesburg’s Soccer City for wearing orange “Dutchy dresses” supplied by a Dutch beer company, South Africa’s The Star newspaper reported Tuesday.
Bavaria brewery distributed the figure-hugging dresses in the Netherlands as part of a World Cup promotion.
Bavaria is a competitor of Budweiser, an official FIFA sponsor. Orange is the colour of The Netherlands jersey.
One of the women told The Star that they were Monday sitting in their seats near the pitch, “singing songs and having a good time” when a FIFA official came up to them and said they were not allowed wear the dress and had to leave.
When the women refused to leave FIFA called in stewards to take them by force, Barbara Kastein said.
The group was then taken to a FIFA office and interrogated by police for several hours before being released, she said.
“They said we were ambush marketing and it was against the law in South Africa. They said we would be arrested and would stay in jail for six months. Girls were crying,” she told the paper.
A spokesman for Bavaria expressed dismay at the women’s treatment, saying there was no branding on the dress and that “FIFA don’t have a monopoly over orange.”
But FIFA was unapologetic, telling The Star that Bavaria had a long history of ambush marketing at sports events and had also tried to hitch its brand to the Dutch team.
Bavaria also locked horns with FIFA at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where Dutch fans wearing Bavaria-branded orange lederhosen to games were ordered to strip.