Don't Fear The Reeperbahn

25-11-2006

Has the renewal of your season ticket filled you with inertia? Becoming bored at how football is being killed by commercialism and tired with the antics of “WAGS” and greedy players claiming that an offer of £50,000 a week is “taking the piss?" Are Saturday's at B&Q becoming an attractive alternative to another predictably boring season at St Andrews, Villa Park, the Hawthorns or Molineux? Well my friend, I have the perfect antidote to combat your cynicism and wash away all thoughts of those impending mid-week away fixtures at Hull, Leeds and Colchester writes Al Toner.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you FC St Pauli, possibly the greatest team in Europe.

After Blues of course.

What can you say about a club that is being run by a gay Motörhead fan called Corny and where the tannoy blasts AC/DC's 'Hell's Bells' out when the players take to the field? Whose merchandise shop looks like an independent record store (complete with pale, pierced teenagers in hooded sweaters behind the counter) and whose official magazine covers art, politics and literature - but not football.

A club that bought an expensive new coach and then put it into the stained hands of an airbrush specialist whose job was to make it look old and battered. When the spartan visitors' loo is a donation from a German punk band? And where one of their current midfielders has set up a charity to bring clean water to primary schools in Cuba?

Like Blues, FC St Pauli are the second club in Germany's second city. Like Blues, they know all to well the pain of falling through the divisions and are currently facing hard times playing in the equivalent of "League One" (i.e., the third division) which in Germany is both regional and part time.

Above all they have a loud, passionate support and can command 20,000 week in week out to watch their inept players fall over a lot. Oh, they've never won anything.

Sound familiar?

I first came across St Pauli 6 years ago when me and some friends went on an, ahem, "cultural" holiday to Hamburg. Rather than be seduced by the Reeperbahn's many nefarious delights, we were instead welcomed with open arms by a motley selection of punks and tramps who insisted that we check out their club.

A game beckoned - a 4-1 thumping of Oberhausen that saw them promoted to the Bundesliga - and the warm welcome, free drinks and unique atmosphere made it inevitable that we had stumbled over something very special indeed.

Put simply FC St Pauli is everything football in England has lost.

You can get in for less than a tenner (or more often than not a local will pay for you to get in) and enjoy a crowded, friendly terrace with singing, good humour and an atmosphere that has sadly gone from the English game.

All this is made possible by the fans who take pride in their inclusiveness and activism. FC St Pauli are famous for their strident anti-fascism, not easy in a football scene where neo-nazism lurks in the background and where many of their competitors in the league are from the former GDR.

The fans role is such that no major decisions are taken by the club until the fans have been consulted and the club even gone as far as supporting the “Fan Laden”, a cross between bar, fan club house and drop in centre to organise fans as well as help out those affected by drink and drug problems.

This involvement makes a wonderful contrast to the UK where the fan is seen in the main as nothing more than an apathetic consumer.

Although all of us are regulars at either Blues, Villa, Albion or Wolves, we get to go over 2-3 times a season and have set up an affiliated fan club - Birmingham Boys in Brown, named after one of their more surreal chants - as well as produce an irregular Birmingham / Villa / St Pauli fanzine ("Brown Sauce") and own website (www.birminghamboysinbrown.co.uk)

We have also have put on fundraising gigs in Brum for them over the last two years spread the word and raise money for both the club and Fan Laden. Altogether we've raised a few grand for their survival fund and even been paraded on the pitch, complete with comedy cheque and 20,000 fans applauding us. We hope to stage the next night in Brum in March.

Naturally, the Germans can't quite get their head around the fact that Blues and Villa fans have dropped their rivalry and taken their club to their heart. But what isn't there to love about this rock 'n' roll, fun-loving, passionate and outrageous club?

Best enjoyed with a cold beer and hot sausage.