Don't Bang the Drum.

[stonerblue]

I was just about to post something similar...

I am German, I am from Frankfurt and I support Eintracht Frankfurt since I was a little boy.

Not many of you will know this football club simply because our "glory days" are over since mid 90. Until then we used to be one of the top teams in the Bundesliga and played in Europe basically every year.

In 1996 something happened that people never ever thought could happen...we went down to the second division as one of the founding members of the Bundesliga and for the first time in our history.

It was a depressive time and our atmosphere was at an all time low. Back then a couple of young people decided that something needs to be done to support our team back to its former glory (which quite frankly didnt happen until today).

Anyway back to the year 1997 when Ultras Frankfurt was founded with the goal to create an atmosphere similar to what we encountered on our travels through Europe (mainly Italy back then which was a different world to what we knew as atmosphere in Germany).

Those guys started to bring banners, flags, colour whatever to the games and slowly established a new style of support.

Lots of the old fans laughed at them because "germans lack the mentality of the Italiens, I don´t want some teenager with a megaphone tell me what to do" etc.

Ultras Frankfurt carried on and all of a sudden people began to realize how much more fun football all of a sudden is when you just don´t stand there with arms folded but actively participate again in supporting your team.

Back then Ultras Frankfurt relocated to a certain area in our old arena and all of a sudden it became "cool" to be part of this singing area and more and more people gathered up there to join the chants, be part of the displays etc.

Today Ultras Frankfurt is still alive and kicking and every Frankfurt fan is proud to be part of the fanscene we have simply because we usually always deliver, no matter if it is home or away.

We get regular visitors from the UK who soley come to enjoy the atmosphere (the football itself usually is not exactly a joy to watch) and a common feedback you get when talking to them is "we wish we had something similar back home".

To keep a long story short...

Give the young ones at least a chance and don´t dismiss their ideas just for the sake of beeing against it.

Don´t come up with this "its not our mentality crap" as I work day in and day out with brits and you lot are not really any different than anyone else in Europe.

Celtic managed to get something going which looks like a nice start on youtube. Back when I was watching Celtic - Aberdeen something like 5 years ago I had to get pissed because it was so horrible boring both in terms of football and atmosphere and that after some fellow colleague from work dragged me along to show me the "amazing atmosphere" at Celtic.

And to be honest its not any different at all over your little island...Guess why the german fans love to get to the UK on Euro trips? It´s because they enjoy taking the piss out of your atmosphere and enjoy their "you only sing when you are winning" piss taking...

Sitting in front of a PC posting stuff on a forum that maybe 10% of city supporters read won´t change the world thats for sure, but those guys try to use the modern media like Facebook, Twitter etc. for their cause and they actually do go to a reserves match to try out their ideas.

Sometimes it takes just a spark to ignite a flame and so far the "Anti faction" hasn´t done anything but sitting on their lardarses, complaining and beeing negative.
At least have the guts to meet up with the people at a match day, get to chat with them and give them a chance to convince you.

Just to give you an impression of what I talk about:

This was one of the first displays of Ultras Frankfurt:

This is how it looks like today with a couple of years experience:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGfo3mkaUNM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGfo3mkaUNM</a>

Away support second division:
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUQvSCZIUfU&feature=g-u-u&context=G2e9ccf1FUAAAAAAAAAA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUQvSCZI ... AAAAAAAAAA</a>

At Home when we played Newcastle a couple seasons back
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHas38WdhP0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHas38WdhP0</a>

I know my credibility with you lot won´t be high because "lol German on City board", but I have a genuine interest in City since the days of Uwe Rösler if that makes you feel any better....

Super post mate. If you dont try you will never know.

agree fantastic post

Yes, great post and thanks.

A couple of questions;

Are you forced to sit down in German stadia?
How much is the cheapest adult ticket?

 

[Deleted member 14625]

sb,

No, they have safe standing.

An example of ticket prices are the one I know about at Bayern München; they had 12000 seasontickets at about £175 each...but also 12000 seasontickets at £7000 each. With lots of standard priced tickets.

Shalke have about a 100 year waiting list for their singing section.

 

[law74]

Yes, great post and thanks.

A couple of questions;

Are you forced to sit down in German stadia?
How much is the cheapest adult ticket?

From speaking to a couple of Dortmund fans after the game last Wednesday, tickets under £20, and standing areas for domestic games, so that might explain why our atmosphere has been crap from the Thatcher picked out the bits she liked from the Taylor report.

 

[Bembeltown]

A couple of questions;

Are you forced to sit down in German stadia?
How much is the cheapest adult ticket?

@Stonerblue:

Nope you are not forced to sit down in German stadia.

There are safe standing areas in 90% of the stadia where...well guess what...you stand. :)

If you got a seat ticket it still happens that people stand up for longer periods of the game without any stewards telling you to sit down.

Cheapest adult ticket would be standing area and in the case of Eintracht Frankfurt thats 165 Euro for a season ticket (thats 17 home games, means single ticket is a bit less than 10 Euro). All tickets (be it season or single ticket) allow you to use the local trains up to 5 hours before the game and after the game as well.

You can get cheap category seats for 23 Euro as well...

Only exception to standing is on european games where no standing is allowed, so seats get installed and the allocation for the standing areas is ofc reduced (you will see that yourself when playing Dortmund and their south stand won´t have its full capacity). Even with seats installed they are usually the "fold down" kind of type (not just if thats the right term), so people stand anyway...

 

[BurnCK]

We're British, we're too prude, which is why most English clubs have shit support (in terms off singing, making noise, etc).

Occasionally we'll make a load of noise all game, but for the most part English support is a sporadic song or two throughout the match.

Most other European supporters but English supporters to shame.

 

[Anonymous]

Having been much impressed by fans visiting the Etihad, during our recent years of European football, I'm definitely up for orchestrated chants etc. A few thousand fans all chanting in unison can drown out and diminish tens of thousands of disorganised fans and that's akin to a home advantage to your team when playing away!

I also think that it would be a great time to introduce such an initiative because we're still a fan base with quite an open mindset - willing to take on new ideas etc. Look at how we adopted the poznan and in doing so brought a bit of fun and humour into the top flight.

Oh, and yes, I do know that some traditionalists will vocally oppose this as they oppose anything and everything that brings change and even some of the regular 'singers' will baulk at the notion because they'd worry about losing their freedom to engage in the more spontaneous banter (who ate all the pies / who's the fat bloke in the pink etc.) but I think that an orchestrated fan response can still have a cutting spontaneity if well managed . . . just imagine 40,000 voices joined as one to query the name of the fat bloke in the pink . . Could be awesome!

 

[Kenney_The_Blue]

Good post mate, get down to the EDS against Chelsea on the 4th nov to help us try it out

Having been much impressed by fans visiting the Etihad, during our recent years of European football, I'm definitely up for orchestrated chants etc. A few thousand fans all chanting in unison can drown out and diminish tens of thousands of disorganised fans and that's akin to a home advantage to your team when playing away!

I also think that it would be a great time to introduce such an initiative because we're still a fan base with quite an open mindset - willing to take on new ideas etc. Look at how we adopted the poznan and in doing so brought a bit of fun and humour into the top flight.

Oh, and yes, I do know that some traditionalists will vocally oppose this as they oppose anything and everything that brings change and even some of the regular 'singers' will baulk at the notion because they'd worry about losing their freedom to engage in the more spontaneous banter (who ate all the pies / who's the fat bloke in the pink etc.) but I think that an orchestrated fan response can still have a cutting spontaneity if well managed . . . just imagine 40,000 voices joined as one to query the name of the fat bloke in the pink . . Could be awesome!

 

[Kenney_The_Blue]

Good post mate, get down to the EDS against Chelsea on the 4th nov to help us try it out

Sunday 4th November, 12:00pm Kick Off.

[bigimg]http://i.imgur.com/QWff7.jpg[/bigimg]

Then 4 days later is the Juventus game on the 8th November, 7pm kick off.

Entry is £3

Having been much impressed by fans visiting the Etihad, during our recent years of European football, I'm definitely up for orchestrated chants etc. A few thousand fans all chanting in unison can drown out and diminish tens of thousands of disorganised fans and that's akin to a home advantage to your team when playing away!

I also think that it would be a great time to introduce such an initiative because we're still a fan base with quite an open mindset - willing to take on new ideas etc. Look at how we adopted the poznan and in doing so brought a bit of fun and humour into the top flight.

Oh, and yes, I do know that some traditionalists will vocally oppose this as they oppose anything and everything that brings change and even some of the regular 'singers' will baulk at the notion because they'd worry about losing their freedom to engage in the more spontaneous banter (who ate all the pies / who's the fat bloke in the pink etc.) but I think that an orchestrated fan response can still have a cutting spontaneity if well managed . . . just imagine 40,000 voices joined as one to query the name of the fat bloke in the pink . . Could be awesome!

 

[stonerblue]

A couple of questions;

Are you forced to sit down in German stadia?
How much is the cheapest adult ticket?

@Stonerblue:

Nope you are not forced to sit down in German stadia.

There are safe standing areas in 90% of the stadia where...well guess what...you stand. :)

If you got a seat ticket it still happens that people stand up for longer periods of the game without any stewards telling you to sit down.

Cheapest adult ticket would be standing area and in the case of Eintracht Frankfurt thats 165 Euro for a season ticket (thats 17 home games, means single ticket is a bit less than 10 Euro). All tickets (be it season or single ticket) allow you to use the local trains up to 5 hours before the game and after the game as well.

You can get cheap category seats for 23 Euro as well...

Only exception to standing is on european games where no standing is allowed, so seats get installed and the allocation for the standing areas is ofc reduced (you will see that yourself when playing Dortmund and their south stand won´t have its full capacity). Even with seats installed they are usually the "fold down" kind of type (not just if thats the right term), so people stand anyway...

Cheers Bembeltown.

 

[dom]

PS: Is it okay if I bring my accordian?

What part of the ground are you in?
Accordions for the Colin Bell stand, Bagpipes for the Norther, Flutes for the East level three, trumpets for two and maybe trombones for level one, the percussion can be in the South stand (side drums for level two and lambegs - Bass Drums and Bohdrans for level one).

Like it !!!
As a bass player , where do I fit in... will there be a plug for my amp ???

Joking apart

get that drum in ... let's MAKE SOME NOISE !!!!