Football For The Fans (a Refreshing Change)

[EASTEND WURZEL]

This just shows you how bad the game in this country has got. I defy anybody to read this and not feel complete jealousy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/w...all/6576807.stm

[Guest]

Links not working :/

[EASTEND WURZEL]

Links not working :/

Should be now mate

[Blagdon red]

This is EEW's link: Boom time in the Bundesliga

[bcfcphoenix]

i watch a lot of football here and find it much better than in england

decent food, the beer is good and not too bad of a price

i think you pay around 2 euro or 2,50 for 0,4l beer...so thats about 1.60 a pint roughly if you think it through

that article fails to mention the MOST IMPORTANT aspect for me;

respect between fans and in general society

britain has become an absolute joke, one of the main reasons is the lack of discipline and respect between people

its not uncommon at AG to see fans swearing and abusing eachother, jumping in queues, starting fights, even attacking our own players (!), and this adds a very sour element to the matchday experience

[redredrobin1]

This just shows you how bad the game in this country has got. I defy anybody to read this and not feel complete jealousy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/w...all/6576807.stm

That would be so special. Being able to walk into a terraced Ashton gate with handfuls of beer and sausages and respect for the fans.....Not sure about you but i'd certainly prefer it!!!

[brady bunch]

sounds fantastic! and while 90% to 95% of city fans (as with wider society) could be trusted to respect the extra freedom and responsibility that beer and terraces would bring.

sadly the the minority that we all know and see at nearly every game who have no respect for their fellow city fan, never mind the oppo's, police (don't start Red Goblin!), stewards, club etc would let us down very quickly and we will be back to being treated like cattle (as we are now).

Its not just a football problem, but started with lack of parenting and poor schooling in the sixties - its been down hill ever since.

baa humbug!!

[bringbacktherobin]

redredrobin1 i don't see how anyone could not prefer it.

Lets looks at it, there are SAFE terraces for people to stand on (they don't have any accidents over there because it is SAFE), you can take you beer onto the terrace with you.

They have places where people can sit down and watch the game so you are not unhappy if you do wish to sit.

After games not everyone runs away having a race to the cars, people stay have another beer, keep singing, have a chat with their mates etc organise away trips.

In most grounds they have tents under the stand, usally it has one for selling food, one for selling offical club stuff and one for selling unoffical club stuff, flags and t-shirts the fans have made. Now imagine trying to do that in england.

Then like bcfcphoenix said you have the low prices for beer, the low low prices to get into a game and a cracking atmosphere.

Or you can have the english game

Over priced tickets, no standing, the lack of any atmosphere, no beer allowed on the terraces (well we don't have terraces),

I know what i would rather have.

[bcfcphoenix]

in reference to the atmosphere;

something i don't understand why it is not done in england - when a goal is scored (home team) the announcer will go "der torspieler fur (team name); nummer acht - albert.....!" and the whole crowed yells BUNJAKU! or something, the surname of the player. it sounds a bit corny but is awesome

similar thing is they do the whole, second goal for werder...BREMEN! werder...BREMEN! and then drop some music and everyone is going mental as in "bounce around the ground"

further point;

where i mainly go, 75% of the ground is standing and there is a kind of rivalry between the stands and the tribune (the stand where people sit), and it often leads to friendly banter like "haha thats pretty good for the tribune" etc, but it never goes as far as "stand up and support your team" etc because they know that people have earned and paid their money and can do as they like when they are in the ground. public respect in society etc.

to the right of where i stand is the...ultras i guess, mostly jumped up kids like in england but to be fair its where the atmosphere is. 2 or 3 of them will take turns climbing up onto the fence at the front with a megaphone and lead the chants and singing and not even look at the match, but again thats their choice and no one bats an eyelid. in this section everyone is going mental more or less for 90 minutes.

even when someones beer gets knocked over etc, it doesn't lead to a slanging match or violence (as it inevitably would in england) but they simply buy you another one, say cheers and get on with it. simple public respect. also there is a community feeling which has been lost (i feel) in england; signified by the general use of 'duzen' (the informal form of address) as opposed to the polite, formal 'siezen'. thats uncommon amongst adult strangers in germany and it typifies the...companionship and mutual respect. it honestly breaks my heart to see city fans fighting eachother and shouting at eachother...

[Blagdon red]

in reference to the atmosphere;

something i don't understand why it is not done in england - when a goal is scored (home team) the announcer will go "der torspieler fur (team name); nummer acht - albert.....!" and the whole crowed yells BUNJAKU! or something, the surname of the player. it sounds a bit corny but is awesome

similar thing is they do the whole, second goal for werder...BREMEN! werder...BREMEN! and then drop some music and everyone is going mental as in "bounce around the ground"

further point;

where i mainly go, 75% of the ground is standing and there is a kind of rivalry between the stands and the tribune (the stand where people sit), and it often leads to friendly banter like "haha thats pretty good for the tribune" etc, but it never goes as far as "stand up and support your team" etc because they know that people have earned and paid their money and can do as they like when they are in the ground. public respect in society etc.

to the right of where i stand is the...ultras i guess, mostly jumped up kids like in england but to be fair its where the atmosphere is. 2 or 3 of them will take turns climbing up onto the fence at the front with a megaphone and lead the chants and singing and not even look at the match, but again thats their choice and no one bats an eyelid. in this section everyone is going mental more or less for 90 minutes.

even when someones beer gets knocked over etc, it doesn't lead to a slanging match or violence (as it inevitably would in england) but they simply buy you another one, say cheers and get on with it. simple public respect. also there is a community feeling which has been lost (i feel) in england; signified by the general use of 'duzen' (the informal form of address) as opposed to the polite, formal 'siezen'. thats uncommon amongst adult strangers in germany and it typifies the...companionship and mutual respect. it honestly breaks my heart to see city fans fighting eachother and shouting at eachother...

I've noticed on MOTD that the Arsenal matchday announcer has started using this German style for reading out the home team names before the match, i.e. he reads out the forename and the crowd bellow out the surname ... better than just a cheer after each name. Maybe DL could follow suit??

Also, when the tannoy man announces the score after a goal has been scored in Germany he ALWAYS gives the away team's score as 'nil'. So even if, say, Bayern were 2-0 up and then conceded a goal to, let's say, Dortmund, to make it 2-1, he'd still say (loosely translated ... and then lapsing into German):

PA man: Scorer for Dortmund: Fred Bloggs. Revised scoreline: Bayern Munich ...

Crowd: TWO!!!!!

PA man: Borussia Dortmund ...

Crowd: NULL!!!!!!!

PA man: Danke!

Crowd: Bitte!

The 'Null' actually sounds better than 'nill' would in English because of the deeper sound of the 'u'. The 'Danke', 'Bitte' bit at the end means 'Thank you' and roughly 'You're welcome'.

It looks a bit corny here in black and white, but sounds great in the stadia!

[jellyred]

Just one thing for the german football afficionados here, where do the german hooligans come from when the international matches are played? As from what you've said above it all sounds too perfect!

[bringbacktherobin]

Every team in every country has football hooligans, its something that will never go away.

[jellyred]

Yes but, don't these sort attend the league games or do they just come out of the woodwork for international games. As in England they seem to be around for both.

[CiderMeUp]

Fair play to the Germans, hope they realsie how lucky they are. The fans there obvoiusly get listened to unlike here where were all treated like sponges!

[Blagdon red]

Yes but, don't these sort attend the league games or do they just come out of the woodwork for international games. As in England they seem to be around for both.

I've been to plenty of Bundesliga games and never seen even a hint of any trouble. Outside the away standing sections they tend to be heavily policed, but once inside there are usually no police around at all ... although they do still have fencing around their standing areas.

Have been to a few German internationals, too - including the one last year at Wembley - and never seen any problems.

There IS a hooligan problem in the old East Germany (where there is a neo-Nazi problem in society in general) and some of the once great, but now impoverished clubs (like Dynamo Dresden) have a large unsavoury following. The same is true in Poland ... and I'll concede that a Germany vs Poland international is one I'd think twice about attending.

In the Bundesliga, however, seated home and away fans often sit together ... and even poke fun at one another ... but the nearest I've seen to anyone getting close to a fight was a Bremen fan suggesting to a Dortmund fan singing something like 'can we play we every week' as his side led in Bremen that he might want to tone it down a bit ... but it was meant as friendly advice, and although I was sat as a neutral between the two, I never felt uneasy ... it was just banter.

[EASTEND WURZEL]

I to was at Wembley for the Germany game, and I've never wanted to be in the away section so much in my life. the noise coming from that area was amazing and they were enjoying banter between their own fans behind the goal and their fans sat to the side. Shows how bad the morgue like home fans were, when you sing songs to your self.

[bcfcphoenix]

I've been to plenty of Bundesliga games and never seen even a hint of any trouble. Outside the away standing sections they tend to be heavily policed, but once inside there are usually no police around at all ... although they do still have fencing around their standing areas.

Have been to a few German internationals, too - including the one last year at Wembley - and never seen any problems.

There IS a hooligan problem in the old East Germany (where there is a neo-Nazi problem in society in general) and some of the once great, but now impoverished clubs (like Dynamo Dresden) have a large unsavoury following. The same is true in Poland ... and I'll concede that a Germany vs Poland international is one I'd think twice about attending.

In the Bundesliga, however, seated home and away fans often sit together ... and even poke fun at one another ... but the nearest I've seen to anyone getting close to a fight was a Bremen fan suggesting to a Dortmund fan singing something like 'can we play we every week' as his side led in Bremen that he might want to tone it down a bit ... but it was meant as friendly advice, and although I was sat as a neutral between the two, I never felt uneasy ... it was just banter.

interesting comment

in the east i've heard racism but not seen any violence, for that matter in the west

i don't know where these fans come from to be honest with you at international games

i have seen big derby matches involving dynamo dresden, and never saw or heard about any trouble

its a very easy claim to make that there is racism in the east, but i'm not sure if its actually the case. if you confine yourself to cities then its not really an issue. like anywhere, you can find trouble if you look hard enough for it, but then you could probably find a BNP candidate in bristol so who are we to criticise.

i know i keep harking on about respect, but its also true that people respect police more here i think. if you stepped out of line, they'd deal with you toughly and quickly and you'd be in serious trouble. in britain they'll arrest you for standing up and singing near the away fans, but not go near people causing trouble and violence amongst their 'fellow' fans (cough front of dolman cough)

[Blagdon red]

interesting comment

in the east i've heard racism but not seen any violence, for that matter in the west

i don't know where these fans come from to be honest with you at international games

i have seen big derby matches involving dynamo dresden, and never saw or heard about any trouble

its a very easy claim to make that there is racism in the east, but i'm not sure if its actually the case. if you confine yourself to cities then its not really an issue. like anywhere, you can find trouble if you look hard enough for it, but then you could probably find a BNP candidate in bristol so who are we to criticise.

i know i keep harking on about respect, but its also true that people respect police more here i think. if you stepped out of line, they'd deal with you toughly and quickly and you'd be in serious trouble. in britain they'll arrest you for standing up and singing near the away fans, but not go near people causing trouble and violence amongst their 'fellow' fans (cough front of dolman cough)

How's your German?

October last year: Dresden vs Locomotive Leipzig derby, 600 hooligans rampage, 167 arrests.

Report - FT Germany

[Betelgeuse]

I think the atmosphere at games in Germany is great! There just seems to be more involvement with the crowd and it brings out a special atmosphere and one I'm sure the players love to be apart of. Eintracht Frankfurt fans are very impressive! Go on youtube and search 'Pipi Langstrumpf' along with Eintracht Frankfurt, some great crowds videos there. Something i'd love to see over here.