FUSSBALL IN THE FATHERLAND 3

 

The empire strikes back…….2012-2013

 

Two visits to Germany in the two years had got me buzzing for European football again. I took an interest in Serie A in the nineties when it was broadcast on channel 4 where the fan culture in Serie A aligned with some of the worlds best players made it the league to watch after English football. English football was changing but was yet to become what it is today.

These days there’s some top quality stuff played in the premier league but the rampant commercialism, quite frankly appalling atmosphere’s (stoke excluded), ridiculous ticket prices, food and drink prices reminiscent of a motorway service station has meant that my interest has diminished.

So a trip to Germany is always a buzz. No better place to watch football.

After last years visit to the south we thought this time we’d do something different and return to the south again. If you are going to spend a long weekend somewhere and watch as much football as possible then you’re a slave to the fixture list and the TV companies. So we waited for games to get moved to accommodate the box and we then planned our trip. We flew to Stuttgart and got a train to our first post of call, Kaiserslatern.

We arrived in Kaiserslatern early doors in the morning and headed out to explore the town. Kaiserslatern is in the Rheinland-Palitinate state of south-west Germany and is not even in the top 80 largest German cities in terms of population. The population is 100,000 with an estimated 50,000 being NATO employees of American nationality. In fact Kaiserslatern is the largest area of American population outside of the US and is imaginatively known by the local yanks as K-Town. As we walked through the city there were many American diners and Irish pubs, it was clear this wasn’t your standard German city. At 11am we walked past a German fella covered in 1FC Kaiserslatern scarves, badges and wearing a Kaiserslatern baseball cap. It looked like he’d just robbed the club shop and was striding through town with the booty. He was knocking back a rather large bottle of Pilsner. However it was Friday and not Saturday so kick-off was at 8.30pm. Clearly he was starting early with his 9 and a half hour pre-match session. Perhaps we were in a typical German city after all……..

After a bit of a wander round a museum (we’re not complete beer swilling football obsessed morons you know, well not all the time), we had a swift pint in town where the dark beer we enjoyed was brewed on the premises, a frequent site in Germany. We then set off to the hotel where we were staying which overlooked the Fritz-Walter stadion. The home of 1FC Kaiserslatern…

Fritz Walter is arguably Germanys greatest ever player and he spent his entire career at Kaiserslatern. Star player during Germanys first world cup win ‘the miracle of Bern’ in 1954 it is fitting the stadium is named after him. It was originally called the Betzenbergstadion and is built on top of a cliff face which makes the 49,780 capacity stadium feel very imposing when walking up the long and on this occasion, snow covered road up to the top where the stadium is perched. Our hotel was opposite the stadium and a brew and a cig on the balcony was enjoyed while looking at it and wondering what that night’s match held in store. We had a meal in the hotel and a beer or two (compulsory prior to German football) and it was a short stroll to the stadium.

We got to the stadium where the fans were drinking cans of beer rather than the usual bottles which was due to a bottle ban imposed by the police. Dynamo Dresden who was that night’s opposition has a reputation for trouble and there was a very heavy police presence. We walked through the police lines and were asked if we were Kaiserslatern or Dresden. I replied Bristol City but tonight Kaiserslatern and waved my ticket. At this moment around 10 police riot vans came speeding up the road heading for the Dresden end. It would appear Dresden was living up to their reputation. We qued up for entrance to the home end terrace and my mate who speaks fluent German along with other languages struggled to understand the Kaiserslatern fans. He said they spoke in an accent and dialect that was so strong and unusual. Once in the stadium we made our way for our place on the back of the 15,000 capacity terrace. Not quite as large as Dortmund’s ‘yellow wall’ and 10,000 standing spaces less in capacity, it was nonetheless an impressive sight and Germanys 2^nd biggest standing terrace. Prior to the teams coming out the Kaiserslatern fans all lit sparklers and held them aloft. It looked mega on the TV when we saw the highlights later and the fans were in fine voice as their club song started. The club song contains the line ‘everyone is welcome here’ then a roar from the fans of‘Except for Bayern!’ despite the huge travelling distance between Kaisterslatern and Bavaria the fans hate Bayern as much as everyone else does! Just before kick off the 4,000 or so Dresden fans set off pyrotechnics that led to the stadium announcer requesting that they put them out. For Dresden to bring that many fans when Dresden is for hours away by train and the game was on TV plus they were bottom it was one hell of a following. Kaiserslatern are one of the biggest clubs in Germany despite the small population within the city itself. They have won the championship on 2 occasions in the Bundesliga era. They won it in 1990 and 97. The 1997 success was all the more impressive as they won it straight after promotion from the Bundesliga 2 in 1996. The season previous was the first time they had been relegated. The DFB Polka or German cup has been won by them on two occasions.

Today Kaiseslatern were hovering around the automatic promotion spots in the 2^nd Bundesliga following recent relegation and it showed in the early stages. It only took until the 24^th minute for Kaiserslatern to take the lead through Karl. Dresden’s defence looked shaky to say the least and Idrissou scored another shortly before half time. The second half was same as the first. The 3-0 Kaisertslatern win was wrapped up by Hoffer 10 mins from time.

We left the next day early to get the train to Stuttgart, as we walked down a stairway away from the Betzleburg my mate mentioned that he had been attacked with a stick by Wuppertal fans on his last visit to the stadium on that very staircase. When was that then? I asked. 1973 he replied. Not long ago then. A glance at the local paper at the station informed us that Dresden had gone on the rampage the night before smashing up much of Kaiserslatern. It looked like the DFB would impose a ban on their fans travelling to away matches.

So back to Stuttgart and changing trains at Mannheim where we saw fans of their once proud club arguing with German police. The fans of Manheim were set for an away day somewhere in the regional league. A mental note was taken to go and watch them sometime. We arrived back in Stuttgart and headed for the Mercedes-Benz Arena. The stadium was redeveloped for the 2006 world cup and stands next to the Porche and Mercedes factory’s on the outskirts of the city. We got there early enough to visit the ultra’s store and grab some German fanzines. Due to my lack of German beyond ordering beer I could only look at the pictures in them but with these being photo’s of ultra’s displays then it was certainly worth the one euro, particularly for a publication the size of an Argos catalogue. Free programmes were piled up next to the stall and were stuffed in the pocket. We then got talking to a mother and son in the supporters bar and the mother was from Kaiserslatern. The son told me that people in Stuttgart struggled to understand her. That Kaiserslatern dialect again. It was great to see the photos on the wall of legends and photos of the stadium in the 80’s. On the wall season tickets were advertised. 200 euros for all Bundesliga matches and cup games, including Europa League. Note to English clubs – That’s how you get 50,000 plus watching struggling sides. The match itself was crazy. Both teams were marooned in mid table in the Bundesliga and both clubs would regard themselves as big enough to be challenging for the title. Stuttgart has a long and proud history and can regard themselves as one of the top clubs in Germany. They were founder members of the Bundesliga in 1963 when the league was formed. As the largest city in the south-west of Germany this was fitting. They had little success in the early years of the newly formed national league and went into crisis in the 70’s with relegation to the regional leagues. They came back however and won the Bundesliga for the first time in 1984 and won the league again in 1992. They produced Jurgen Klinssmann whose family run a family bakery in the Stuttgart area and Stuttgart is the home town of Jurgen Klopp. Stuttgart surprisingly won the league again in 2007 but since that triumph have not challenged for the title. Stuttgart looked terrible at the back, disorganised and out thought by Bremen. It was not long before Bremen raced into the lead through an Ekici strike and 1-0 it was at the break. How this was the case was a surprise as it should have been more.  In the second half Stuttgart equalised through Traore but Stuttgart’s defensive weakness showed and further goals from Hunt, Ekici and De Bruyne left Stuttgart with a 4-1 home defeat. No more than they deserved as it was some of the worst defending I’ve ever seen and trust me I’ve seen Richard Dryden play. At the end the Stuttgart players approached the fans at the terrace housing the home fans with their heads bowed as if to say sorry. They were pelted with empty pint pots to shouts of Sheiss!

We got the train down to the Black Forest and the town of Freiberg the next morning. I’d been before but just passing through on the way to sisheim but this time the visit would include SC Freiberg vs. Fortuna Düsseldorf. We walked from the station to the youth hostel opposite the stadium where we were staying. This was in the forest and it took around 40 minutes to get there on foot. We wanted to walk in the forest but as the snow was covering every blade of grass and branch then we thought better of it. A quick beer or two in a bar near the ground and despite having no internet access on my phone for the whole trip it decided at that point to spring into life on my phone. No access in major cities but a strong signal in the middle of a forest. Bizarre.

Freiberg is a friendly little club who don’t have a long or glorious history such as kaiserslatern and Stuttgart. They spent most their history in the regional leagues before reaching the 2 Bundesliga at the end of the 1970’s where they stayed until promotion to the bundesliga in the 1990’s. They have yo yo’d between the two divisions since but when relegated have not spent much time before winning promotion again. They have been established in the Bundesliga since 2009. Freiburg was occupying the positions just outside the Europa league places and they looked very bright and were always a threat going forward. They hit the bar just before half-time and Düsseldorf looked like the struggling side that they were. With 3 minutes of normal time remaining Pavel Krmas scored with a header from a corner. Freiburg held on and moved into 5^th and a Europa league place. Cue party time in the black forest at the final whistle! We retired to the supporters bar for a few beers and as it was Fasching (a German carnival) and Freiberg was flying in the league there was a party atmosphere. We told some lads of our other trips. They were not happy we had gone to their enemies Stuttgart and nodded knowingly with regards to Dresden’s behaviour. They told us Dresden fans are Nazi’s and spread their bile around the Bundesliga. They are well known for attacks on Germany’s large Turkish population when they are in a town or a City for an away match. Confetti was thrown down my back some of which still appears in various places in this room that I type from. This was taken as a sign we were welcome to party through the night with them. We were tired and headed back to where we were staying. One of the lads suggested we join them in town as there would be girls that ‘would like to fuck an English lad like you. The girls will be very drunk so it will be easy’ despite this rather worrying suggestion I declined politly.

So that was Dutchland 2013. So how did they do?

Kaiserslatern managed to secure a play-off place where they were defeated over two legs by everyone’s favourite bankrolled billionaire club Hoffenheim. Stuttgart finished in a disappointing mid table by their standards and Freiberg did  the unthinkable and got into Europe,

As always the beer was top, the ticket prices low and the atmospheres a joy to behold. What of Bayern after two years secuming to Dortmund? They won the treble. The empire did indeed strike back. Bollocks.

Fussball in the Fatherland 2

January, it's without doubt the worst month of the year. Christmas is gone and the dark nights and cold bleak weather in England start to grate. Summer seems a long way off, the trees are bare of leaves and the bank balance is low due to the exertion of Christmas upon it. It's no wonder that it contains what is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year and most relationships end in this month. So the papers say on a slow news day anyway. It's also traditionally a poor month for my team Bristol City. It's the month when a promotion campaign starts to hit  the skids or the bleak realisation of another season of struggle becomes apparent and an optimistic late play-off serge is off the menu for even the most optimistic of fans. In the wider football world the Premier League becomes an almost all predictable two horse race fuelled by foreign investment or rampant commercialism and champions league money. It's a month where you need something to look forward to, a getaway on the horizon. What better than a trip to where football is still the peoples game? Germany.


The year before me and friends ventured to the North-Rhine region and took in games at Dortmund, Leverkusen and Wuppertal. This year we headed to the South of Germany. We flew into Basel Airport in Switzerland and took a bus to the beautiful town of Freiburg in South-West Germany. It is situated in the Black Forest and the town itself is viberant despite it's location. The town has it's own Bundesliga club SC Freiburg but we wouldn't visit their stadium for a match as they were at home to Bayern. No chance of tickets in a stadium with a capacity lower than 30,000. After an evening in Freiburg and a visit to Germany's oldest pub, we headed to Baden-Baden famous centuries ago where the kings of all Europe would meet and the town displayed this in the sense of regal architecture and you really had a sense that this was a town that had the smell of money. Baden-Baden is also the scene of the infamous 'wags' of England's world cup campaign of 2006 and as we walked through the town we imagined what the locals of Baden-Baden would of made of a group of women with far too much money and not enough class. Baden-Baden is also famous for the novelist Ernest Hemingway having lived there for a period and we had a drink in a bar called Hemmingway's. The décor was the hight of tack with leopard and tiger print surrounding the bar. We thought it was just one of those bars where the landlord would be married to Bet Lynch but then I recalled that Hemingway was a keen hunter.


The next day we took a brilliant train journey through Baden-Wattenburg to the small town of Sinsheim passing through the even smaller town of Hoffenheim and it is the club TSV Hoffenheim we we going to watch that night as they took on Mainz. Hoffenheim are one of the smallest clubs in Germany never mind the Bundesliga. As we passed through Hoffenheim itself we could see their former ground that looked fit for only non-league football which is of course where Hoffenheim came from. They had to build a stadium in nearby Sinsheim as there was nowhere to build in Hoffenheim itself. After a long walk to our hotel in Sinsheim we had beers in the hotel lobby and chatted to Mainz fans who were staying there, we got the bus to town where we had a meal and then headed to the stadium via shuttle bus. We were chatting to a fella in his 80's on the way to the stadium. He had been a Hoffenheim fan his whole life and could not believe the rise engineered by Millionaire benefactor Dietamar Hopp. Hopp owns the computer giant Sap and bought Hoffenheim in 2000 when they were in the 5^th division. They were in the Baden-Wuttenburg regional division 8 shortly before Hopp's investment and by 2008 they were in the Bundesliga. An incredible journey bankrolled with the cash from software. He was indebted to Hopp as he could never of believed Hoffenheim could of risen so high. When we reached the stadium and said our goodbyes he mentioned that there was a live TV broadcast from a bar in town after the game. We noted the bar and said we might see him there. We approached the 30,150 capacity Rein-Necker Arena and it was an impressive, smart and modern stadium. The capacity is more than adequate for Hoffenheim as the town itself has a population of 3,300. We got in the stadium and settled down the stand down the side of the pitch. The stadium was half empty but this was not a surprise as I'm sure you can imagine that a capacity of 30,150 was more than adequate for a club and a town of this size. Hoffenheim took the lead through and own goal from Mainz captain Nikolce Noveski but didn't look in complete control and the two sides took a point each as you may well expect from two mid-table sides that didn't trouble the relegation or European places all season. 2-2 in the end. There was a definite sterility about the stadium and you could feel that this was the home of a club without much tradition. Most German fans don't like Hoffenheim as they feel they have bought themselves to an unnatural position. Tradition is very important to German fans. The game was entertaining though and was worth the 20 Euro's admission fee for one of the best seats in the house.


After the game the bus back into Sincheim where we found the bar we were told about. It was rammed and doorman weren't letting in so we chanced it and went round the back enterance where we entered and made our way to the main bar where they were filming. It was a Sky Deutchland show called Mein Stadion and had the Austrian international who was fouled by David Beckom in an apparent deliberate attempt to get sent off so he could sit out a ban with qualification secured as the guest. We made sure we got into view of the camera so we got on German TV. Beckham seemed to be the main topic of conversation with the guest. Brand Beckenham in full flow in South-East Germany.


It was up early and off to the city that is home to one of Germany's most well known cities and most traditional of clubs – Nurenburg. 1FC Nurenburg are known as 'Der Club' – the club as they held the record for German Championships for 60 years with 9 titles before being overtaken by Bayern in 1987. Nurenburg have also been relegated 7 times and as a result the fans have a saying that 'the club is an idiot' This saying came to prominance when they managed to be relegated one season on the last day when it seemed they had been safe for some time. It has been an up and down existence since the 1960's. We arrived early and once we dropped off our bags where we were staying it was off to the Franken Stadion where 1FC Nurenburg were taking on Cologne or 1FCKoln to give them their German name. We had a choice of getting a train to the stadium or walking and as there is several places of historical significance we decided on the walk. Right next to the stadium there is the scene of the Nurenburg rally which is now a car park. The giant concrete podium that Hitler and his goons stood on remains and someone has spray painted 'Bob Marley One Love' on it which was good to see. You could see the remains of the concrete terraces surrounding the scene that now have grass growing through them. I spent a moment looking round and contemplating the evil that had once been present there. We got into the stadium which was Octangle in design and we were in the small terraced area to the side of the goal. The stadium has a running track and had the feel of a much smaller version of the old Wembley. The Nurenburg ultra's were opposite us and as the team came out unfurled a huge banner in tribute to their 90's goal scoring hero Dieter Ekinstein. Both sides were in lower mid table and Koln were without their star man Lucas Podolski who was out with a long-term injury. Both sides looked poor and it was obvious they were both struggling. Nurenburg took the lead through Esswein and 1-0 it remained until half-time. Koln managed to equalise but Nurenburg pushed and grabbed a late winner.


Nurenburg has traditionally been left wing politically and was traditionally in the region known as Frankien. Hitler favoured Nurenburg for his rally's because of it's political leanings and also it's relevance to the Roman empire. He thought if he could show how in control of Nurenburg he was then the rest of Germany could see his power and also the symbolism of the empire or Rome. Post war it became part of the state of Bavaria or Bayern to give it it's German name. Nurenburger's don't like being in Bavaria as it tends to be quite conservative in it's politics and our next destination was it's capital – Munich. We were not going to watch Bayern however but the other Munich club 1860 Munich. We arrived in Munich dropped our bags off and headed to The Allianz Arena which 1860 share with Bayern. 1860 Munich were originally Munich's main club and were founder members of the Bundesliga in 1963. At this time Bayern were still playing in the Bavarian regional league. Franz Beckenbaur grew up an 1860 fan but signed for Bayern after playing a youth game against 1860 and receiving a punch from opposition player during the match. He resolved to never play for his beloved 1860 because of this and signed for Bayern. Beckenbaur was instrumental in Bayern's rise to a national then European power in the 1970's. For 1860 it was a costly punch. They have forever since lived in Bayern's shadow. 1860 are named after the year they were formed not as a football club but as a sports club. All German football clubs are sports clubs with football being one of the many sports played. 1860 have been in the 2^nd Bundesliga for some time now but were pushing for promotion where they came up against a superb Dusseldorf side. They took an early lead though Aigner but Dusseldorf looked more impressive and equalised just before half -time through Beister. Both sides looked good and played slick, quick passing football. The Allianz Arena felt the most soulless of the new stadiums in Germany and the prices for a beer and bratwurst was very high for German football. There was no segregation on the concourses and sets of fans mingled without a hint of trouble.


After the game we stopped off at The Olympastadion in Munich's wonderful Olympic park. The park was covered in snow and we walked to have a look at the Olympiastadion. The stadium was used for the 1972 Munich Olympics and hosted the world cup final of 1974. It was also the scene of England's famous 5-1 victory over Germany in a world cup qualifier in 2001. The top of the stadium is at ground level and the stadium itself is below. Most of the terraces are uncovered and it is quite remarkable to think that international matches and home games of Bayern were played in this stadium as recently as 2004. I took a picture of the famous scoreboard that had the 5-1 score on it and off we went into town for a night in the Hoffbrauhaus. There is the thought that occurs when people think of Germany of huge beer houses with giant steins. This is a myth and you won't find this throughout the country and only in Bavaria or Bavarian themed bars. The Hoffbrauhaus was where Hitler made some of his earliest speeches and I went to have a look at the room where he made them. Traditional Bavarian food was on offer of pigs knuckle and dumpling and white sausage. The white sausage is served in a pot of boiling water. Other Germans think of Bavarians as peasants for the food they eat and regard this type of fodder as a reflection of this.


Next day it was home via a train from Munich to Basle where I bought a plate of chips and pasta for £12.00. 'You having a brew with that asked my mate' 'You're fucking joking right?' Was my response. Ahh Switzerland, you're all well off because you were clever enough to avoid war but the price of a snack and a brew is shocking to us still on miners salaries.


At the end of the campaign Hoffenheim finished a comfortable place in the Bundesliga as did Mainz. Nurenburg finished in lower mid-table and Koln were relegated after a 2^nd half of the season implosion. Podolski was offski to Arsenal before the 2^nd Bundesliga fixture list was released. 1860 Munich missed out on promotion despite their win over Dusseldorf and were unable to win promotion through the play-off's either and so it was Fortuna who did so by beating Herta Berlin of the Bundesliga over two legs.......

 

Fussball in the Fatherland....

Back in february this year i went away to Germany for 5 days. During the summer I decided to write about the experience.........

I needed a holiday and had some cash squirrled away so I mentioned to my mate John that I was looking to go away. Was he up for it? He was and with him being a teacher February half-term was the time to do it. Where to go was the question and the main motivation was football. Go somewhere where we could watch some games. The answer had to be Germany and more specifically the North-Rhine Westphalia.

The reasons were simple. Plenty of clubs in that region so we could get to as many games as possible. The clubs in Germany’s industrial heartland are legion – Shalke, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Monchengladbach, Dusseldorf, Colne, not to mention smaller clubs such s Rott-Weiss Essen and Duisburg.

We flew to Amsterdam from Bristol and arrived in the Dutch capital at around 10pm on Friday night. We found the youth hostel where we were staying and a few beers were consumed. In the hostel were staying in a dorm with two Belgian lads who enquired as to the reasons for our trip. We explained that we were heading to Germany the next day to spend a few days watching football. They seemed amazed at our reason 'you have come all this way just for football?' What were they doing in Amsterdam then? 'The same reason anyone comes to Amsterdam, to take drugs' Glad that cleared that up then....

Early Saturday morning John got his train to Hanover where they were at home to Kaiserslauten. I decided to head for a different venue and we would meet later that day. I boarded a train to Dortmund via Duisburg where I would be watching a team that gets the highest average attendance in Germany and one of the best in Europe – Borrussia Dortmund.

I arrived at Dortmund station two hours prior to kick-off and the station was already packed with fans of both Dortmund and St Pauli, that day's opponents. Almost every one of them was enjoying beer and plenty of fans were carrying crates and necking bottles like their was no tomorrow. The atmosphere between the two sets of fans was boisterous without being intimidating and not looking at spilling into violence. The Dortmund fans were chanting 'shit St Pauli!' in English at the St Pauli fans. They responded by chanting back the same with piss taking looks on their faces suggesting that the Dortmund fans had mental heath issues. I joined a queue to catch the train to the ground as the stewards on the platforms poured away the remaining beer in the hands of fans and kept the bottles.

The train to the stadium rocked with songs from both Dortmund and St Pauli and was absolutely packed.

When you approach the ground it looks impressive but not as impressive as you would expect a stadium with a capacity of 80,552 to look. The frontage is bright though and very smart. The stadium approach was full of bratwurst, beer and souvenir sellers that were all doing a roaring trade and I had a wander round the ground to where I would be watching the match – The 25,000 capacity terrace known as the Sud Tribune. Tickets for this end have a face value of 12 euros’ about 10 quid but such is Dortmunds support that these sell to members within hours and the match as a whole was sold out within days. Although there were plenty of tickets on offer outside the ground, I didn't want to chance it and my ticket arrived via Berlin before I left for a less than cheap 70.00 quid.

It didn’t disappoint. I was up in the top right hand corner of the terrace which was packed 1 hour before kick-off where fans drank beer from plastic cups and smoked if they wanted to. The ground rocked as the Dortmund fans jumped up and down and sang for thee support for BVB, a song that sounded like 'BVB for me'. Even the stewards watching the fans were swigging beer. A massive difference from those in England who spend most there time telling people who want to stand to sit down

Once the teams took the field to a rendition of you'll never walk alone, sang in English with a German accent, bizarre, the game kicked off. Dortmund had control of the match and it was no surprise when they took the lead through Lucas Barrios, the Sud Tribune erupted and 25,000 people proceeded to jump up and down and with BVB already 15 points clear at the top of the bundaslega, it was party time in Dortmund. St Pauli was never in it and despite being in mid-table were over whelmed by wave after wave of Dortmund attacks. In the 2^nd half they relented and Dortmund added a 2^nd through an own goal by Gunesh. Despite being 2^nd best throughout and only having one optimistic attempt on goal, the St Pauli fans sang, jumped up and down and got behind their team. Compared to the sterile atmospheres in England the noise generated by both sets of fans was mind blowing.

I made my way to the St Pauli souvenir van on my way back to the station to pick up a scarf. St Pauli had just won promotion the previous season from Germanys 2^nd division and they are Germany's most unique club and one of the most unique in the world. Hailing from Hamburg they are SV Hamburg’s poorer relations and play their matches at Milleretor-Stadion in Hamburg’s red light district. They have spent most of their history in the 2^nd and 3^rd divisions with a few brief appearances in the Bundaslega. Their fans have an anti-racist agenda and had Germany’s first gay chairman. They run out to Hells Bells by ACDC and are considered the alternative club. In their shop was a t-shirt in the style of the Sex Pistols one and only album which read – Never mind the Hamburg......here's St Pauli. While pursuing the St Pauli shop a Dortmund fan by the name of Helmut asked if I was a St Pauli fan. I told him I was English and had come to see BVB play and to stand on the sud tribune. He was taken aback. 'You have come all the way from England......to see Dortmund? I told him that I had. He then took the Dortmund scarf from round his neck and put it on mine. 'take this my friend and when you look at it, always think of Dortmund'. A top gesture from the lad. We continued talking on the way to the station, and he asked me where in England I lived, Manchester I replied and he assumed I was a Man Utd fan. I explained that although I have lived in Manchester for 9 years and that it was now home, I was originally from Bristol and so Bristol City was my team. He was going one way and I the other. I wished him and Dortmund all the best. Was he confident of them winning the league? He hoped so and added that if they didn't then as long as Bayern didn't he would be reasonably happy. I arrived back at Dortmund station and there were still plenty of fans stood around drinking and smoking and taking advantage of large bottles of kromenbacer at 80p a bottle.

I got talking to some St Pauli fans while waiting for John to return from Hanover and ended up drinking with them for 3 hours. After confirming my footballing allegiance they led the way with anti Bristol Rovers songs that they had been taught by visiting Bristol City fans to their ground. I discovered later that they actually have a link up with the dreaded Gas due to the Pirate connection. Rovers are the pirates due to Bristol’s navel history and St Pauli have a skull and cross bones as their unofficial badge. They were too friendly to bring this up. They were still buzzing about their derby win at Hambergs gaff and were confident that this time they could secure their Bundasegia status.

Names were swapped for adding on facebook at it was time for them to catch their train back to Hamburg.

Once back at the youth hostel we hit the town in Dortmund. For a club that have such high attendences at home, Dortmund itself is unimpressive. It is not a big place and we had some beers on the main square which only had 3 bars on it. There wasn't a great deal of people around and they all seemed to be wearing Dortmund tops. As with most of Germany and the Westphalia region in particular, being the industrial region of Germany it was heavily bombed during the war. The result being that there were hardly any buildings that weren’t grey 60’s style buildings.

John assured me that there wouldn’t be a lack of bars in Dusseldorf, our next port of call.

Football in Germany is still a working class game. Fans can stand and ticket prices are cheap. This is reflected in the superb atmospheres at matches and high attendances. The next day We headed for Germany’s most middle-class club – Bayer Leverkusen.

Leverkusen is a small town between Dusseldorf and Colne and would be a completely non-descript place and certainly no sort of footballing power if it wasn’t for the town’s biggest employer - Bayer. The German Pharmasutical giant owns Leverkusen and bankrolls them. The club was set up as a team for the employees of Bayer and has always been supported financially by them. It's only through this backing that Leverkusen have reached the champions league final and won the Uefa cup but have never won the Bundesliga despite several near misses and so are known as Neverkusen. The Bay Arena was redeveloped in 2009 and has a capacity of 30,210 with a small section in the corner for standing. Upon approach to the stadium from the station you walk through a very pleasant park, think a trip to Craven Cottage with the skyline looking more like Middlesbrough and your there. The stadium itself is smart from the outside and smart on the inside but feels much more like a modern Premier League ground than a Bundaslegia one.

The terrace in the corner houses the Leverkusen ultras and ironically for a club with a fanbase such a Leverkusen's they were the first team in Germany to have an Ultra’s group.

Stuttgart were the visitors and the match was a hugely entertaining 4-2 win for Leverkusen. The Stuttgart fans were superb throughout and contantly sang and got behind their team despite the score and their league position.. Stuttgart played much better stuff than St Pauli the previous day and didn’t look like a side that should be in the bottom three although their defence was hugely suspect. Leverkusen had old premier league veterens Michael Ballack and Sami Hypia in the side and played good quality attacking football although would not be a match for a top premier league club.

We left Leverkusen and headed for Dusseldorf where we met Rob who had been to bottom of the table Borussia Monchengladbach. They hadn’t won at home all season and were rooted firmly to the bottom of the table. Rob brought them luck though and they gained their first home win against what Rob described as a very poor Shalke side. It may have been a local derby but they pulled in a gate of 55,000 despite their league position. At 9 quid a ticket to stand behind the goal it's perhaps not that surprising.

A day off on the Monday with no football that evening but as we were in Dusseldorf station looking to see if their might be a local non-league fixture. It was while thumbing through Kicker (Germany's best selling football magazine) that we came across a lad with a backpack, glasses and an enormous jaw. He was from Sheffield also had what looked like a toothpaste stain hanging from the corner of his mouth. You lads looking for games? He asked. 'Yeah but there’s nothing round here tonight.' He enquired where we had been. We told him between us Hanover, Dortmund, Gladbach and Leverkusen. He also had been to Dortmund and Leverkusen and was heading to Berlin to watch Hertha in the 2^nd division that night. Berlin being a 4 hour train journey away this lad was clearly into his football or off his box. The toothpaste stain was a suggestion that this fella was an anorak who was clearly beyond help. I bet he looks good on the dancefloor…

Later we hit Dusseldorfs old town and had a few beers and watched the Herta Berlin game. After the game a champions league preview show was on featuring the upcoming game between Bayern and Inter. After about 5 mins of the show one fella who must have been in his sixties waved a disapproving hand at the screen 'Bayern! Again! It's enough to make you sick!. It was at this point that the barman turned the TV off much to the thanks of the Bayern hater. A lot of people in England dislike Manchester United (although not me and I think the ABU's can be quite sad) but the bile reserved for Bayern in Germany really was palpable.

Tuesday we headed to Wuppertal which is a town that boasts the worlds only upside down mono rail. Impressive though the mono rail was is wasn't our reason for visiting this pleasant town. Down in the German regional league play Wuppertal Borussia and tonight they were at home to FC Trier. The trip so far had been cold and my decision not to take my extremly warm parka was looking like something of an error. We decided to board the mono rail and head for the stadium to see if the game was going to be on or if horror of horrors it may be off due to a frozen pitch.

We got off at the station opposite Wuppertal's ground which is called the Zoo Stadium. A strange name for a ground but the reason why it is called this is quite simple – It's next to a zoo. It looks quite smart from the outside and we decided to walk into the entrance to look for signs of life. There wasn't anyone about so we walked through the tunnel and out on to the pitch to be greeted to the sight of 3 reasonaly large open terraces. A few photo's were taken and I then decidede to take a seat in the dug out. It was at this point that the groundsman decided to make an appearance. 'Who are you and what are you doing here' he asked. John who's German is fluent told him were were sorry but had come into the stadium looking to see if the game was on tonight. He wondred why we might of thought it would be off. We said that in England most games would be called off if the ground was too hard for the players. He laughed and said 'this isn't England, we're much tougher here!' In The game would definatly be on.

The Zoo stadium is a very inpressive stadium in size to watch what amounts to non-league football in. Two relatively large open terraces behind each goal and a large open terrace down one side of the pitch and the main stand is a smart affair. The stadium holds 23,000. Tonight the capacitry weas not tested in any way as just over a thousand souls bared the cold with around 60 noisy away fans. German fans do travel in numbers to watch their team and even when they are being soundly beaten they still vocally get behind their team.

Wuppertal started brightly but their suspect defence was soon cut open and they went in at half time 2-0 down. They couldn't make their chances count and looked low on confidence. One local who we spoke to had seen Wuppertal play in the Bundaslega in the early seventies. What had gone wrong? They have no money and the council now own the stadium he said. Attendences had been poor for a number of years due to a lack of success and too many large Bundaslegia clubs nearby. The final score was 3-1 to trier.

As we headed to take the train back to Dussledorf we stopped for a quick beer at the kiosk outside the Zoo Stadium. It was there that we were approached by two middle aged blokes who enquired if were were English. We told them that we were and beer bottles were clunked, a German greeting. They were Gladbach fans and often watched Wuppertal which was their local team. They told us that they though it a travesty that England hadn't been awarded the 2018 World Cup and wanted to talk about english football. It would appear that Germans liked our bid even if FIFA did not. They wanted to know who we supported and the answers of Bristol City, Blackburn Rovers and Stafford Rangers seemed to take them by surprise. Their favorate English team was Manchester United due to the clubs tradition. They disliked Chelsea because they had bought success like Bayern. Bayern, again! the national obsession.

The next day we headed back via Amsterdam, Rob stayed for the rest of the week to take in games at Leverkusen and Rott-weiss essen. On the Saturday it was Bristol City Vs Scunthorpe United to make it 4 matches for me in a week. Despite Ashton Gate having arguably the best atmosphere in the Championship the return to watching English football after the superb matchday experience in Germany was a real comedown. Football is still affordable in the fatherland and as a result it’s still a working class game. Being able to stand and drink certainly helped but the football culture there is like it was when I started going in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It seems to me that the only way we can improve the atmosphere in English stadiums is to make ticket prices affordable for the average fan and to bring the terraces back. Safe standing is safe and having seen it first hand in Germany there really is no logical argument against it. As for ticket prices, clubs here will never lower prices unless attendences drop. They would also never welcome a return to standing as prices would have to drop for standing places and renovations would have to be made to stadiums. German fans want the option to stand and if ticket prices became too high then they simply wouldn’t go.

At the end of the season Dortmund were champions and Leverkusen runners up (their hoodoo continues). Bayern came third and as a result then did what Bayern do,. they sacked the manager and appointed Leverkusen’s. St Pauli’s defeat at Dortmund was the beginning of a period of freefall for them and were relegated. Dortmund and Leverkusen won’t be much of a threat in this seasons champions league as there is not the money in the Bundeliga as in England or Spain but if this is the price to pay for the superb fan culture then perhaps it’s a price worth paying…………

From Manchester....

James Bolam