Booking Travel

Soccer flight no fancy to Greek Jim

December 9th, 2005

TO THOUSANDS of Sydney football fans he is known as Jimmy the Greek, a man who seems to have a mobile phone permanently attached to his ear, forever rallying supporters, organising events, making banners, buying flags, arranging match tickets.

“Everything’s just gone crazy over the past few weeks with the World Cup,” concedes Jimmy - real name Dimitrios Hatzitoulousis - a Kensington builder/draughtsman who works in the family business with his father, Peter, and brother Tass. “I’m supposed to be helping them build a house. Luckily they’ve got used to all the interruptions.”

Jimmy is unofficial leader of the Bay 23 Boys, a large and loud group of Socceroos supporters who first started gathering behind the goal at the Paddington end of the Sydney Football Stadium in the late 1980s.

Through thin and thin they have followed the Socceroos, whose only previous appearance in the World Cup finals was more than 30 years ago. “Some of these boys are now in their 30s and 40s. They’ve been waiting, hoping for this moment.”

This morning they were up early to watch the live draw for the finals in Germany, starting in June, to see whom Australia would be playing, to pitch for tickets, to arrange travel plans.

“Tickets are going to be massively oversubscribed,” said Jimmy, who arranged a live showing of the first Australia-Uruguay qualifier for more than 1000 fans at the Enmore Theatre and organised tickets, flags and banners for the second at Telstra Stadium.

The Bay 23 Boys, who support the new local A-League team Sydney FC, are one of a handful of big, overlapping groups of supporters looking for tickets and planning to travel to Germany.

The Green and Gold Army’s free membership has increased from 3000 to 5000 since the Socceroos secured their place in the finals. “We’ve been receiving 50 to a 100 inquiries a day,” said a spokesman, Mark Van Aken.

The army is linked to the travel group Jetset and has its own man, Andre Kruger, who adopted the Socceroos several cup campaigns ago, on the spot in Hanover, to organise parties, get-togethers and seek out tickets.

The other big group is the Fanatics, formed by Warren Livingstone “after a chance meeting in the toilets with [the tennis greats] John Newcombe and Tony Roche after the US Open” in 1997. The aim, said Mr Livingstone, who was to be in Leipzig for the draw, was “to form an organised, passionate and patriotic support group that would follow Australian sport at home and around the world”.

Although some hardcore Socceroos fans grumble that the Fanatics, which boasts a database of 60,000 names, is basically “a travel agency posing as football supporters”, the groups co-operate to obtain tickets, arrange travel and make a big show.

“Demand for tickets has been unprecedented,” Mr Livingstone said. “A frenzy.”

Jimmy the Greek is undeterred. He is confident he can snag some tickets, and he will be in Germany anyway, on an extended honeymoon. The couple marry in April. Did he arrange the honeymoon with the World Cup in mind?

“I’d be lying if I said it hadn’t crossed my mind.”

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world-cup-2006/soccer-flight-no-fancy-to-greek-jim/2005/12/09/1134086812365.html

Entry Filed under: WorldCup2006