Last weekend just gone I went on a stag do to Berlin. It meant I missed
the QPR game, although I did catch the first 15 mins in an Irish bar.
Whilst there the stag group attended a match between Union berlin and
Cologne. Cologne of course is the team we beat in the European Cup Semi Finals
of 1979, and like us are dwelling in the wrong division. Unlike us they are
flying high at the top and look like going up.
However for the purpose of this day we were Union fans. I had always
wanted to go to a foreign game and specifically a German game so this was
perfect. The fact it was second tier was better for me as it felt like it was
more akin to how Forest would be.
So why am I reporting this. Because there are great many things going on
in Germany we can possibly learn from and take from, there are other things
they are doing we will never do, and much is the pity maybe that’s just cultural
differences.
The first thing I will point out is for one the club has a real local identity. The fans helped build the stadium, and I mean literally. They put in hundreds of thousands of man hours to build it as they club was strapped for cash. This gives more a sense of ownership for a stadium and what’s going on than anything else.
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| This is not Paul Anderson |
I'm not suggesting that Forest get the fans to pick up trowels and
hammers and start learning how to drive cranes and how best to rivet steel
girders or whatever in place. But the involvement in the process and joining
in, and helping the club out directly, rather than in England all you get
usually is a bit of bucket rattling. But if the fans are involved they respect what they have more.
Next up is the price. A similar level to Forest, with a team in a
similar just outside the promotion party, and playing a very well supported
away team top of the division cost a very friendly 12 Euros. That’s a pittance
in all honesty, and I have seen tickets at poor level non-league football
trying to be sold for more. Here we had players who were really quite handy on
show.
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| Stadium is terraced on 3 sides |
The next two things are things I'm not sure we'll see in England ever
again, but it helped. Terracing. It's a sore subject for many, and writing in
the 2 days after the 25th Hillsborough anniversary almost feels wrong but it
does still offer something if managed and policed properly. Union berlins ground
holds in the region of 20,000, and 17,000 of that on 3 sides is all terraced.
It was very well done, in almost two levels, with a mini concourse between two
levels which were freely open to move between.
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| Beer can be openly drank on terraces |
Beer. We could drink in the stand. This will never ever happen again in
a ground, but it was part of the match culture there. Get in the ground, and
get a beer from many many many beer vendors. They even had mini bars at the
back of the stand, and mobile guys with pumps on their back moving round the
crowd. Apparently this doesn’t happen at the top level, but only in the
divisions below. Yes people drank all game, yes people were clearly not sober
(though not obliterated either) but there was zero problems you'd probably see
in England, is it a cultural thing?> Maybe. I did see one guy get stopped
for pissing in a bush, but if that’s the extent of the problem then its small
fry.
Atmosphere. This was a biggy for me. We arrived late, and on a walk through the wods theere was wall of noise hitting us before, it was really stirring. When we got in, we weren’t even in the Ultra's end,
but it was still good none the less. Cologne didn’t shut up once for the whole
first half even if it was the same tune for 30 mins with differing words. Union
for their part sang a lot too, and had we been in the other end with the Ultras
it would have been louder. They held up banners (as if that'd be allowed with
our stewarding) at each other I assume mocking each other but I don’t know
German I'm not sure. What they did seem to be is behind the team, and not on
their backs, and even though Union lost, they all stayed, and sang at the end
and clapped and applauded. Something we'd barely ever do.
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| Union Flags waved all game long |
However refs are the same the world over. This ref was useless and got a
lot very wrong. Something’s in football are universal.
What’s my point? Well for one I've been a bit tired with Forest lately
in the last few months. It's just not been a happy experience. This was. I know
none of the above will make a difference to pretty much anyone, and I know the atmosphere
on Saturday will be flat. But what I've seen has rekindled a bit of romanticism
for the game in me.
I urge anyone to try and see a game abroad to just compare the
experience. The likes of St Pauli and Union are very much community clubs, almost
feeling like a cooperative. I think this is something English football needs
back. It's soul. Things to consider anyway
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| McClaren... Or maybe not |
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