German fans flock to Eupen

There was only one choice of venue for Germany's matches in the UEFA European Under-17 Championship group stage - Eupen. The main city of the German-speaking community of Belgium, and only 15km from the border, Eupen was on the other side of that frontier until the Versailles Treaty and plenty of fans have turned out to watch Paul Schomann's side in their two games there to date.

Second home
The opener against Ukraine attracted 2,018 spectators to the Kehrweg Stadium and on Friday that figure was up to 2,800 as Germany took on France. They lost that latter game, so will hope for another big turnout as they seek a result against Group A leaders Spain on Monday. "With all the German fans here, it really feels as if we are playing home matches here," Schomann said.

Club delighted
Dieter Steffens, the president of host club KAS Eupen - whose average home gate in the second division is not far above 1,000 - is certainly delighted. Steffens told uefa.com: "It really suits us well, as a lot of German fans have come over to our stadium for the games. Thousands of spectators are here every match, and a lot of them are German."

Long journey
Aachen is the nearest big German town to Eupen, around 20km away, but fans have travelled even further than that. Milan Pein, who has come to both games from Hamburg, told uefa.com: "I am surprised that so many German fans are here to support the team, while also a lot of local people are coming to watch the games, as they are glad a German team is playing here."

Warm welcome
Visitors have been made very welcome in the town. "We really like it here, we've been received very warmly by the people in Eupen," Pein added. "We were actually surprised so many people spoke German here, we really had no idea we would find such a large German-speaking community here. In my imagination it would be more Flemish or French-speaking people.

Similarities
"On the first evening we were in a great restaurant, where we not only ate good food, but where the people also told us about the history of Eupen and about the environment here, so that was very nice. A few things here might be a bit different then they are at home, but there's a lot of similarities. But most of all I feel like I am in Europe."

'Excellent atmosphere'
Steffens is happy to have their visitors. "There is absolutely no problem with the German fans who have come over here. They all are behaving very well, and it is an excellent atmosphere. For the club and the city of Eupen it is a very good advertisement, especially as the matches are also on Eurosport.

Tourism boost
"The tourism sector is also profiting from it, as along with our already beautiful environment, we now are attracting a lot of new people to our city, as the German team is staying in this area. That brings more people and extra turnover. With a 74,000 German-speaking population, we are only talking about a small percentage of the total Belgian population. But in the end, we are all European citizens after all!"