Rather
than watch Spurs on TV (again) last weekend, I opted to spend the
weekend with my wife and a few friends in the north German city of
Hamburg.
Rather
than regal you with stories of our weekend break and photos of the
rather splendid Rathaus, I figure that by visiting this site you'd be
more interested in our footballing exploits. While
some of the group managed to get in several sporting fixtures, I
attended two major football matches at the city's league teams
Hamburg SV and Sankt (or St) Pauli.
The
first was among 52,000+ at the Imtech arena, formerly the AOL Arena,
built at the turn of the century for HSV. The game we saw from the
nosebleeds was a 2-0 win for visitors Eintracht Frankfurt, whose
noisy fans we were sitting above.
The
second was a 0-0 between St Pauli and Energie Cottbus in a crowd of
26,000+ at the newly opened stand at the Millerntor stadium.
According to one of our group (the Germany-based Sean), this was the
first game at the newly opened stand now containing the dugouts.
So
that's the basics, on to the details! What stuck me about the HSV
game was the integration of fans in the neutral zones. A particularly
bouncy Eintracht fan was in the row before us and there was no
trouble at all. Now consider if a Spurs fan were so vocal in the West
Brom stand at the weekend.
The
other Taylor report-breaking (if we were in England) abilities are
the standing sections for home and away fans at HSV, the ability to
drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes (other things were being smoked,
but they remain illegal), something well known for UK-based fans. This
demonstrated the ability of fans to behave themselves while standing
and drinking at both games without any noticeable problems. There was
also the waving of giant flags and banners among other intimidation
techniques, but as a neutral fan, this was not threatening.
Well
I say neutral, my heart was with before and after with St Pauli.
There is nothing wrong with HSV really, and their fans on the whole
were welcoming and loud. They even got a cheer from me for containing
former Spurs man Rafael Van Der Vaart in their starting 11. Although
VDV has now been caught up in a domestic dispute
that is doing his reputation in the media no good.
Overall
I don't think there is anything wrong with HSV, but as my friend Andy
has literally just pointed out to me, the reason they are not liked
is because they share a city rivalry with St Pauli.
The
visit to the St Pauli ground has been a long time coming for me and
our group, with its anti-fascist, liberal and all round
anti-establishment well known.
The
ground was not as lavish at HSV's, but with 3/4 of it standing, an
almost constant stream of home-made ticker tape and walkout to
AC/DC's Hell's Bells, everything falls into place for the left-facing
football fan. Be
it the Che Guevera flags, fan songs to the tunes of 'Karma Chameleon'
and 'Too good to be true', or even a pre-match sing-a-long to 'You'll
never walk alone' (something this Spurs fan doesn't get the pleasure
of at home), there is a real appeal to watching St Pauli. It is just
a shame that the game was a 0-0, but at this club the passion,
spectacle and noise of the supporters is what you come for - rather
than the 'boys in brown and white'.
To
conclude this blog with no narrative, I recommend you read up on St
Pauli's ethos and visit the city to attend a game whether it is for
the standing and drinking experience on the terrace, to see a city
divided between two teams or to embrace the romance of St Pauli. Also
don't forget the currywurst, it's a particular delicacy in this part
of the world.
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