NYON, Switzerland (Reuters) - Football fans are renowned for their creativity and passion, adapting the most unlikely songs into stadium anthems and brightening up the drabbest of grounds with their banners and flags.
Yet, at major matches such as the Champions League final, the World Cup and the European championship, their passion is often drowned out by loud music and screeching announcers as organisers take the pre-game atmosphere into their own hands.
It is a far cry from the old days when the noise would gradually build up in the hour before the game as fans filed into the stadium, culminating in the roar which greeted the kickoff.UEFA's marketing director Guy-Laurent Epstein said that, in the case of Champions League final, the idea was to appeal to a broader range of people than would normally watch a match.
Epstein said that Dua Lipa's performance at the final in Kiev last year was UEFA's most-viewed, single piece of social media content ever.This year, Grammy-award winning band Imagine Dragons will perform ahead of the Liverpool-Tottenham match at Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano stadium, in a show which UEFA promises"will feature a level of production never seen before at a UEFA Champions League final".
"This will diversify the audience, bringing more women to watch the game," he added."Trying to gather a great audience that is outside the club fan base...that is really the objective." Kirkham pointed out that last year, Dua Lipa's performance ahead of the Liverpool-Real Madrid final proved popular with the English team's supporters.
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