大象传媒

Klagenfurt

Sad to say but I think that Euro 2008 is starting to wind down.

Let me explain. It's Tuesday lunchtime in Klagenfurt, the day after the night when the city hosted its final Euro 2008 fixture. I am wandering around the outskirts of the city, not far from the , trying to find a launderette that does not require a minimum of 24 hours to wash half a dozen pairs of socks. Everywhere I look, temporary beer and foods stands are being taken down, likewise flags of the competing nations that had been hung from pillar to post.

Fast forward several hours to the Fan Zone at in the centre of the city. A band, Route 66, is playing and can be heard several blocks away. Only when I enter the Fan Zone do I realise that there are less than 50 people watching them.

The stallholders look bored and slightly disinterested, sausages remain untouched, lukewarm under the heat lights, the drizzle continues to fall and the atmosphere is ever so slightly depressing, like a festival headlined by a forgotten band nobody cares about anymore.

A shop window full of Austria fussball gear has a 'sale' banner slapped across it. The receptionist at my hotel tells me that the convention centre that hosted the city's second Fan Zone will now close due to lack of interest.

It is all a far cry from the night before when fans of both Poland and Croatia drank their way merrily and peacefully through the evening. Klagenfurt throbbed with life, noise and energy - a carnival of football.

It is the halfway mark of my journey around Euro 2008 and I cannot help but think that, with both host nations eliminated, the party is well and truly over in most of Austria and Switzerland.

No doubt this is in part attributable to the fact that the entire knockout stage of the competition will be hosted in just two cities, Basel and Vienna.

It is easy to see why Uefa has made this decision as they boast the only two venues with a capacity in excess of 32,000, but it doesn't do much to maintain an interest in the tournament amongst two host nations who never really seemed to bitten by the football bug.

A feature piece on an Austria television station on Tuesday evening showed their national team's training ground in Stegersbach being dismantled. As the advertising boards around the side of the pitch were being carried away and the goalposts taken down, "As Tears Go By" by The Rolling Stones could be heard in the background.

"It is the evening of the day,
I sit and watch the children play.
Smiling faces I can see, but not for me,
I sit and watch as tears go by."

It all seemed a little over the top, a touch tongue in cheek, as though the producers knew the Austrians didn't want anything too serious because they aren't really all that bothered.

And in truth, I do wonder whether the people of Klagenfurt ever really embraced being a host city at all.

Several locals in the sleepy, provincial capital of said they felt more afraid than anything else, shying away like fishermen down in the hold waiting for the storm to pass.

Trouble certainly followed the Germany versus Poland match, perhaps vindicating their apprehension. But the receptionist at my hotel - yes, her again - felt the city had blown the chance to capitilise on their moment in the spotlight.

Now, with the host nations eliminated and just two venues left after Wednesday's final round of group games, I suspect that Euro 2008 has closed for business in many cities.

From what I've seen so far, that is no bad thing, and, reinvigorated by the sensation of clean clothes and buoyed by some brilliant fussball, I quite fancy dusting off the old boots and having a bit of a kickabout myself.