Trousers off for the Dutch fans!!!...makes a change!
LOL!



Dutch football fans trying to attend their team's game in Stuttgart today could be made to go into the stadium without their pants. The bizarre situation has been caused by a popular pair of orange "lederhosen" which breach a World Cup advertising embargo.

The Dutch are known as liberal people but even their orange army of football fans may find the idea of watching a football game in just their underwear slightly weird. But this is the bizarre situation facing many Dutch fans today because of a cult pair of orange trousers.

The problem is that the orange lederhosen bear the logo of Dutch brewery Grossbrauerei. Advertising by non-official sponsors is banned around World Cup stadiums. Heineken, which sponsors the Dutch national football team, is also not pleased at the guerilla marketing campaign. Before a friendly game against Cameroon earlier this month Heineken kicked up a fuss and forced Dutch fans to leave the offending items outside the ground. Later a Dutch court ruled that Dutch fans should be allowed to wear the trousers, but German World Cup organisers may disagree.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported this week that the bright orange lederhosen are the brainchild of Peer Swinkels, manager of a Dutch brewery, Grossbrauerei Bavaria. For every double six pack of the beer sold in Dutch supermarkets, the brewery have been giving out free pairs of orange, cotton lederhosen. The idea is supposed to be a gentle mockery of the Germans' penchant for real lederhosen during the World Cup period. The lederhosen also feature a tail and a lion motif -- the national symbol of Holland. So far over 250,000 pairs of lederhosen have flown off the shelves and they have become a cult item among Dutch soccer fans.

But anyone trying to wear their lion-like lederhosen in the stadium when Holland take on the Ivory Coast will have to leave them at the security check. Which leaves the distinct possibility that many fans will have to watch in their underwear. But hey, at least it's warm in Stuttgart today...