His colleague Rob from Café De Drie Paardjes can’t wait for the ball to get rolling either. “We will open especially for it on Monday”, he, like Mol, refers to the confrontation between the Netherlands and Senegal. “We are unpacking with three very large screens. Hopefully people will come in of their own accord, but I don’t know exactly how big the influx will be.”
In the Meerveld district, there is a lot less anticipation for the global final tournament. Anyone who takes a look at the streets of the Emmer working-class neighborhood will not end up in the Oranjezee for which the neighborhood is known. The traditional instigator of the World Cup feeling in Meerveld has not moved, but does not want to pay attention to the Qatari football party.
“No Oranjewijk here this year. I think that’s a pity, but I don’t have any sleepless nights,” says Hendrik Hidding, the man who always starts the football fever. “I will watch the Dutch national team, but this year no flags between the houses and more of that work.”
The state of affairs regarding the World Cup is so against the Emmenaar that any form of festivities goes too far for him. “How the World Cup came to be in Qatar, and the culture in that country, I don’t go along with that. With this I also want to set a good example to the rest. If I do nothing, others won’t hang garlands either,” says Hidding the message to other residents together.
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