Vice mayor of Shanghai, one of the six co-host cities for the Beijing Olympics, has pledged the city will make every football team feel like playing at home as hundreds of thousands of fans are poised to cheer for them.

"We have sold more than 440,000 tickets so far, so I am expecting a very high seat occupancy rate (during the matches). Our fans are ready to cheer loudly for them and we are going to make them feel like fighting at home in Shanghai," Zhao Wen told Xinhua in a recent interview.

According to the Beijing Olympics football tournament schedules, Shanghai will hold a total of 12 football matches during Aug. 7-22 -- nine for men's and the other three for women's. Another three co-host cities, namely Shenyang, Qinhuangdao and Tianjin, will hold other Olympic football games.

"Shanghai won't hold any finals. And based on current tournament schedules, Shanghai won't hold any game played by the host team either. Even so, we see it as one of our priorities to create a good competition atmosphere and organize fans to watch the games in a civilized manner," Zhao said.

Shanghai has a fine tradition in sports, particularly in football, which is testified by the fact that the coastal city have produced former China striking legend and current FIFA ambassador for women's football Sun Wen.

With only 19 days to go before the Olympic Games, the vice mayor said the city is fully prepared to hold the matches, with the first one falling on Aug. 7 between Team Australia and Team Serbia in a Group A play.

"We have pulled out all stops to ensure a success in holding these football matches and make contributions to the Beijing Olympic Games," Zhao said to Xinhua.

"We have been getting down to every detail and pursuing perfectness in our preparations for the matches here," said she, who has been visiting related facilities again and again to check them at every corner.

"I have asked our volunteers who will provide services for audience at games to bring with them some candies, snacks and cartoon pasters so as to appease children in case that they should cry during matches," Zhao said. "At present, our slogan is that finding out problems is an achievement."

Zhao also expressed her hopes that the Beijing Olympic Games would become a good opportunity for the rest of the world to have more understanding about China as well as its largest city Shanghai.

"Shanghai is famous as a place of cultural exchange and integration between the East and the West. It is set to play a unique role in contributing to the concept the 'People's Olympics'," she added, referring to one of the three concepts for the Beijing Olympic Games, with the other two being the Green Olympics and the High-tech Olympics.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2008)