Some interesting stuff going on yesterday...results were not so interesting (f*$% you Alex!!) ;)
As you might know the big Rhein Derby between Gladbach and Köln was on. Last season when Köln was playing in Gladbach there was this silly pitch invasion by Köln fans which once more sparked the security issue debate in Germany. As a result Gladbach didnt get the full amount of tickets for the derby yesterday and the tickets were personalised.
Obviously Gladbach fans were not amused and the majority of them didnt attend the match as protest, instead they just showed a banner in the empty away section "Is this what you want?".
Köln fans joined the protest and there were no flags/banners and no organized support in the home section. Köln won 1-0 and Gladbach really is in trouble now with 0 points after 5 match days.
In addition to that there was a huge debate going on in Germany about football clubs showing their support for refugees. As a sign of solidarity all players were supposed to wear a special "refugees welcome" badge. Now the biggest tabloid in Germany, the dreaded "Bild", jumped the bandwagon and got their logo on the badge.
However Bild in the past was notorious for their anti refugees campaign, but now that the general attitude in Germany is more welcoming towards refugees they jumped the Bandwagon as well.
This was followed by massive protests of all fan scenes in Germany and resulted in the #BildNotWelcome hashtag and banners everywhere.
A couple of clubs like Union Berlin and St.Pauli even completely refused to play with the badge as long as the Bild logo is on it. This then resulted in Bild reporters claiming that refugees are not welcome at the Millerntor in St.Pauli which is absolutely silly as their fanscene is know for sponsoring season tickets for refugees etc. since years.
Bild was already despised by the majority of football fans over here for their shit stirring and bullshit news about football "riots" and whatnot, and now they are really in trouble.
So just in case you come across the #BildNotWelcome banners on TV, this is what it is all about.
Just returned home from my Bundesliga marathon ( a special thanks to Rhineland for organising the Cologne tickets, and great to finally meet Aiden)
I must confess to slowly jumping on the Cologne bandwagon, (if there is such a thing)
3 games, 2 wins, 1 draw, is certainly better than my first three City games, 1 win, 1 draw, 1 defeat.
We found the Cologne-Gladbach game quite peculiar, especially as there seemed to be more Gladbach fans in the home end, than in the half-empty visitors section.
After the game, the riot police kindly formed a wall of steel, meaning that a 51 year old City fan, and his slightly older Everton mate, had to walk anti clockwise for roughly three hundred yards, instead of clockwise for roughly 50 yards
The game also provided my first experience of non-alcohol beer (somebody should show the German FA some youtube clips of Luton-Millwall or Birmingham-Leeds from the real days of football violence in the mid 80s. Perhaps they might appreciate that a minor pitch invasion isn’t really in the same league (why don’t they just make an example of the aggressors?)
Both sets of supporters made us welcome, although as I don’t recall Gladbach having a shot on goal for the whole game, there was plenty of time for idle conversation.
At the end of the game I was confidently predicting an easy victory for City in the Champions League. Now, I’m not so sure, but I suppose that’s the beauty of football.