Finance and false teeth usually preoccupy the residents of the tiny country of Liechtenstein. But their concerns this week are all about security as the local police gear up for the arrival of hundreds of English soccer fans.
Saturday's Euro 2004 qualifier will be the biggest sports event the sleepy principality has witnessed and police are drafting in colleagues from neighboring countries to help them cope.
Police, who fear tensions could run high at a match that England know they must win, have warned fans without tickets to stay away.
Concerns that England fans and players could be caught up in anti-war demonstrations were soothed with reassurances from Liechtenstein late on Monday that security would be adequate.
"This is the largest sports event of its kind that has happened in Liechtenstein," police chief Gabriel Hoop told reporters.
"It is clear that the police force cannot do this on its own ... and therefore we have enlisted external help."
Liechtenstein, which had no army and had no prison until 1991, is famed for its finance industry and low taxes -- there are more banks listed in the telephone book than bakeries. One of the leading industries is the production of false teeth.
The country, one of Europe's smallest states and one of the richest, has just 33,000 people and on an average weekday the streets are largely empty, apart from a few coaches of bemused tourists.
Police cells
On Saturday, 900 England fans with tickets for the game against Liechtenstein's part-time players will swell local numbers.
An unspecified number of police officers from Austria and Switzerland will move in to join their 70 colleagues from Liechtenstein as part of a campaign coordinated with more than 20 security, rescue and administrative organisations.
"No decent general announces how many people he has got working for him before the battle has started," Hoop said.
Fans without tickets will not be welcome. Just in case of trouble, 35 cells have been prepared in the police headquarters.
"This is a very small country and we do not want to be overwhelmed," Roland Ospelt of the Liechtenstein Football Association said.
Cars and buses normally have free entry into Liechtenstein from Switzerland but on Saturday officers will be stationed on the five bridges which cross the Rhine river into the 300-year-old principality, picking out ticketless fans.
"They will have to have a valid passport and a ticket," Oskar Gaechter of the Swiss Frontier Guards Corps said, adding that those without tickets would be stopped from travelling on to the 3,500-seat stadium.
Officials denied that the country, hemmed in on one side by the Rhine and on the other by Austria's westernmost mountains, would be turned into a fortress ahead of the game.
But they said there would be no video screen outside the stadium and no extra events or parties organized around the match. Restaurants and bars might shut for fear of being overrun by fans.
"There is simply nothing for [the fans] to do," one official said.
Medieval castle
Liechtensteiners will not be able to watch the football at home as the Swiss national broadcaster, which beams to its neighbour, has no live rights to the match.
The match will cap a tumultuous month for Liechtenstein.
Ten days ago, international media descended on Vaduz to watch Prince Hans Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein, who reigns over his subjects from a medieval castle overlooking the capital, win a referendum for more powers.
Liechtenstein's residents are realistic about the prospects of a victory against England on Saturday.
England are second in Group Seven with four points from two games, five behind group leaders Turkey who have nine points from three games. Liechtenstein have one point from two games.
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