The Catholic Action of the archdiocese of Vienna began canvassing against opening the shops on Sundays during the 2008 European Football Cup (7-29 June), which will be played in Switzerland and Austria (the final will be played in Vienna). The purpose of the campaign is to prevent the shops opening on the four Sundays of the European Football Cup as well as raising awareness of the value of Sundays. The signature forms have been taken to all the parish churches of the Austrian capital. The president of the Catholic Action of Vienna, Christa Buzzi, doubts the shops should be open on Sundays, not least for business reasons: "Football fans are the ideal shopping target", she commented, partly with reference to the statistics from the 2006 Berlin World Football Cup. "The only consequence is that many thousands of employees would have to stay, in the shops instead of spending Sunday with their families". According to Buzzi, this would also be a dangerous precedent since the experience might speed up the launch of more relaxed regulations on the Sunday opening of shops, as it happened in Germany after the World Football Cup. "It would be important, for instance, to give Viennese people free entrance" during the Football Cup.
