A South African court gave the two Dutch dress babes 10,000 rand each bail and postponed the case for a week. The women are accused of a World Cup ambush marketing campaign for a brewer. The Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs says the arrests of the women were disproportionate.

The passports of the women were confiscated and their case has been postponed to June 22. The two are linked to a suspected ambush market campaign by brewer Bavaria at a World Cup tie. "These women, who have been part of a larger group, are suspected to be involved in organised acts to conduct unlawful commercial activities during the Denmark/Netherlands match on Monday," South African police said.

The arrests came after FIFA questioned a group of 36 Dutch women who were watching the match in Soccer City stadium on Monday in skimpy orange dresses. The dresses produced by family-owned Dutch brewer Bavaria caught the eye of experts on the lookout for ambush marketing campaigns.

Not correct
The Netherlands Minister of Foreign Affairs Maxime Verhagen stated on Thursday that he thought that the arrests of the ladies were disproportionate and thinks that it's not correct that they might face jail time for wearing an orange dress to the football stadium.

Anheuser Busch's Budweiser is the official beer for the tournament and world soccer's governing body fiercely protects its sponsors from brands which are not FIFA partners.

FIFA has started legal proceedings against the Dutch brewer. "FIFA has filed charges against the organiser of the ambush marketing stunt pulled between the Netherlands-Denmark match at Soccer City two days ago," a FIFA spokesman said.

Not the first time
Bavaria has clashed with FIFA before over supporters wearing its orange clothes to stadiums.
Four years ago at the Germany World Cup, scores of Dutch men watched the Netherlands play in a Stuttgart stadium in their underwear after stewards ordered them to remove orange lederhosen bearing the name of Bavaria.

South Africa's wheels of justice have moved with haste to deal with cases related to a soccer World Cup tournament in the past week. A special court devoted to World Cup cases sentenced on Saturday two men to 15 years each for robbing World Cup journalists from Portugal and Spain.

source: Reuters