Sports

World Cup: Mini Dress Arrests:Barbara Castelein,Cindy Van Diernen

by NowPublic Staff | June 16, 2010 at 01:38 pm

9424 views | 14 Recommendations | 4 comments

Female Dutch Fans Charged For Wearing Orange Mini Dresses To World Cup Match (photos, video)

FIFA through the South African courts has come down hard on a group of Dutch female fans who were wearing orange mini dresses to a world cup game involving the Netherlands.

Barbara Castelein and Cidy Van Diernen have been charged with violating FIFA's merchandising regulations. Castelein and Van Ciernen have been released on 10,000 rand ($1300) bail.

The Dutch orange mini dress arrests occurred during the Denmark vs Netherlands game on Monday. About two dozen female Dutch fans showed up in matching orange mini dresses. The dresses were sold with packs of Bavaria beer in the Netherlands.

Budweiser is the official beer sponsor for the FIFA 2010 World Cup.

FIFA says it is an ambush marketing stunt. FIFA detained the Dutch women after the match, questioned them for hours and then charged two women who FIFA says organized the stunt.

The Dutch foreign minister Maxime Verhagen is outraged.

"It is absurd that the two women have a jail term hanging over their heads for wearing orange dresses in a football stadium," Verhagen added.

"If South Africa or FIFA wants to take a company to task for an illegal marketing action, they should start judicial procedures against the company and not against ordinary citizens walking around in orange dresses."

The Dutch embassy in Pretoria has questioned South African authorities about the charge.

"We are not aware of any South African legislation that allows people to be detained for wearing an orange dress," foreign ministry spokesman Aad Meijer told AFP on Tuesday.

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Roy Anserson (not verified)

at 16:20 on June 16th, 2010

Shame on you FIFA and Budweiser : take a Blond in prison because of mini-dress is against the natural law.

Man Singh (not verified)

at 19:03 on June 16th, 2010

There is a word for discrimination based on color - Apartheid!! South Africa - have you forgotten?

Tom van Zanten (not verified)

at 09:09 on June 20th, 2010

Budweiser will not be selling any beer in The Netherlands for the next 10 years. And in Belgium neither. Well, it's horrible beer anyway. BTW, there's not even a company mark on the dress, it's plain orange. Bunch of idiots.