Home
category
Brit Bashing
Look out for the European Championship float at this year's Rosenmontag Parade. The cheeky organisers have decided to poke fun at the English for their failure to qualify for this year's European Championship. "We often see the English as very big-headed when it comes to football, and it's good to take a swipe at them," says Christoph Kuckelkorn, the director of the procession, "In this, my third year in the job, I've tried to give the parade a little more bite." The design for the carnival float, shows Germany sticking it's tongue out at an English knight, who is condemned to watch the tournament on the TV. The caption reads: "We're Off to the European Championship Without England." The float will be paraded through Cologne on the 4th February in a procession that usually attracts well over a million people and is broadcast nationwide. England's defeat by Croatia in November means it will miss a major tournament for the first time since the 1994 World Cup. The news initially provoked a collective jeer in Germany. Newspaper headlines read "Football's Staying Home" and T-shirts went on sale bearing a broken cross of St. George above the slogan "Ohne England Fahren Wir Zur EM" ("We're Off to the European Championship Without England"). Although English footbal fans are still licking their wounds over their failure to qualify most will be oblivious to Cologne's mickey taking, as the carnival has about as much meaning in the UK as Kölsch. But for those of us here in Cologne - let's let out a collective "BOOOO" when the float goes by!