ABIDJAN - Shading from the sun under a canopy outside Ivory Coast's German embassy, anxious soccer fans queue for a visa to see their national team play their first ever World Cup finals match.
Many say they have paid upfront for flights which would take off within hours and for scarce hotel accommodation in Germany and they fear their dreams of watching the Elephants in action will soon be dashed.
"We're a bit stressed. We're waiting and we hope the answer will be positive," said one civil servant from the Ivorian Ministry of Culture waiting for an answer for a visa application for himself and a colleague.
"We have to get there. If not today, then tomorrow," he said, as street traders offered cold drinks and cut-price calls on their mobile phones to the crowd of a few dozen people.
Pressure has been building at the consular section of the embassy in the run-up to football's most important tournament, as fans turn up with last-minute visa requests, German ambassador to Ivory Coast, Rolf Ulrich, told Reuters.
Police forced back an aggressive crowd of up to 100 outside the embassy gates on Thursday using teargas. One man had rammed a wooden post into the embassy's iron gate leaving a small dent.
Through television and the local newspapers, Ulrich said the embassy had encouraged hopeful travellers to submit their applications early to avoid eleventh-hour panic.
But the unhappy expressions on applicants' faces outside the embassy's whitewashed walls showed the rigour of administration and the passion of the beautiful game were not a good mix.
Turned Down
"It's all here, you see, it's all here," said one woman pulling a white envelope out of her handbag containing tickets for entry to the Hamburg stadium where the Elephants will confront Argentina on Saturday night.
"They refused me. They didn't even take time to check the papers. It seems like a scam to me," she said.
Applicants must pay a 23,000 CFA franc ($44) fee which is non-refundable whether or not they get the visa.
Ulrich said applicants did not need to purchase flights to Germany but only had to show reservations which could be cancelled if the application was turned down. He said many applications were incomplete or left until the last minute.
"The greatest number of applications only started in late May. That puts us under a lot of pressure," he said, adding applicants still had to convince consular staff that they would return home after the World Cup.
Thousands of illegal West African migrants have reached Europe in recent months in rickety, overloaded boats, frustrated by poverty and a lack of jobs a home. Many others have drowned on the way.
Ghana and Togo to the east of Ivory Coast are the other two West African states competing in the championship.
The German embassy in Ghana said it had brought in extra staff to cope with hundreds of people who had applied for visas but declined to say how many had been granted.
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