They might not have the best football team in the world, and the team might not be in the reckoning for the title, yet their fans are as fanatical and passionate about their team, as they are whenever their nation competes on the sporting field.
For a nation known for producing world class sportsmen, their players have not delivered much on the football pitch, but for fans of the “Socceroos”, the Australian national team, their team is as good as any, and hence hundreds of their fans have camped in at a venue where their cricket team has recorded some stunning wins.
The Australian fans have made the Kingsmead stadium in Durban their base camp.
The venue is currently home to 1,200 Australian soccer fans, who have housed in neat rows of green tents and a vast beer tent, ensuring that they can do what Aussies are renowned for the world over: drinking and watching sport.
The campers say they have paid a reasonable price between 4,500 to 6,000 Australian dollars for getting a chance of travelling to a World Cup.
The package for watching the tournament includes match tickets, transportation to games, a bed in three-man tents and full English breakfast.
"This is our home; we have got some pretty good standard stretcher beds, quite comfortable, found them pretty good for the first two nights," said one of the fans, who hails from the South Australian city of Adelaide.
The organiser of the tour is Fanatics HQ; the camp is built on the success of a similar Australian venture at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where the Socceroos performed better than expected, booking a place in the second round.
The organisers have big plans of entertainment for the fans as they travel from one venue to another where the Aussies play, and fans are hoping that they have a long stay in the country and are not forced to exit if their team crashes out in the opening round of the event.
Meanwhile, part of the entertainment package includes flying in Fatboy Slim and popular Australian bands Powderfinger and Electric Mary; on the other hand, a tight rein is being kept on drinking and smoking on the pitch.
Understandably, security is a high priority at the camp, as Durban has a notorious reputation for mugging and street crimes. The revellers in the camp can only get in and out by placing their fingers on biometric scanning machines.
"Security is obviously a big concern, we have done a biometric scanning system, we have also got security at all points around the ground and also on top of biometrics we have got a wristband system so if you are not wearing it, basically you are not allowed onto the arena, so we know who is supposed to be here," said one of the organisers.
The residents of the camp have been briefed on the security situation and have been advised to follow the plan to the tee, including doing the "smart thing" when needed.
The residents have been asked to carry a dummy wallet with petty cash in it, in order to escape unharmed from a mugging situation. The muggers can stab or shoot people if they offer resistance, hence the ploys has been designed to stave off danger.
Yet for the residents of the camp, the mugging threat is the least of their worries: their main worry is the lack of women in their base camp.
"The ratio is about 80 percent to 20 percent guys to girls. It's slim pickings but it won't stop the boys from trying anyway to see if they can get their hands on one," was the candid confession of one of the residents.
The residents of the camp maintain that the base is strictly Australian and no one else is allowed to reside at the space. The residents claim that their camp has made fan groups from other nations “jealous” and that pleases them, as ruthlessness gives the Aussies a real kick.
(QUOTES REUTERS VIDEO POINT)
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