bainy said:
My lad is already in dusseldorf and travelled from there to watch cologne play in a second tier match. Paid on the day, all the standing tickets had gone so sat in good seats and was charged 25 euros. Lots of standing sections.
Interestingly though, he said there was no atmosphere at all for 10 minutes - said it was like a morgue, then on 10 minutes the stadium erupted with the best atmosphere / noise he has come across for a while. Turns out german fans were having a protest against plans to abolish safe standing as a result of the hillsborough reports - all the german fans are opposed to this hence the unified protest!
IMO the only way to make a stand about prices is seek unity from fan's of all clubs and make a stand together...this is where the power is and will make the money men (sponsors / tv companies) raise an eyebrow or two!
"Fans across the German club divide displayed fabulous scenes of unity on Tuesday night in a widespread supporter protest against the controversial ’Safe Stadium experience’ laws likely to come into operation imminently.
The German football authorities are set to vote on December 12 on the ’Safe Stadium experience’ paper. In a nutshell, the paper plans to vastly reduce away support from the present 10% ticket allocation to just 5%, whilst institutionalising a complete ban on away standing sections. Moreover, the paper wants all German football fans to undergo strict full body scans when entering a stadium.
The rules are to apply to both the Bundesliga and Bundesliga II divisions, but on Tuesday night the fans of the top two tiers of German football expressed their thoughts on the ‘Safe Stadium experience’ paper through the newly established 12:12 protest movement.
The protest is beautiful in it’s simplicity, just demanding that all fans refuse to chant songs and waves banners until the 12th minute and 12th second of their respective matches. Once that time had past though, it is the responsibility of every fan to get back to the job of vocally supporting their team".
