FA unveils Euro 2004 goodwill push

The Football Association (FA) is to launch a football fan “goodwill” campaign in the run-up to the 2004 European Championships in Portugal.

The campaign will be launched under the banner “All Together Now”, and will be centred around the re-release of a song of the same name by indie band The Farm. The song is about a football game played between the English and German in no-man’s land during the First World War.

With about 400,000 English football fans expected to attend the tournament, the FA wants to ensure there is no repeat of the hooliganism that marred the Euro 2000 tournament in Belgium and Holland.

The campaign will aim to create feelings of goodwill among fans. One source says: “The FA is trying to get positive messages to the fans both in the UK and Portugal about how to behave, and how to come together in a game that should be fun.”

An FA insider says the campaign is expected to include a range of advertising and promotional activity. “We will try to involve a bit of everything, including advertising.”

The FA is also talking to its principal sponsors – Carlsberg, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Umbro and Nationwide – about supporting the campaign. The FA hopes to create a similar spirit to the Euro 96 tournament in England, which was helped by the success of the “Three Lions” song by Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds.