Oot and Aboot in Jormany

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Neil

 

…Or how I watched Berlin’s second club outplay Middlesbrough…

Match Ticket. Yesterday. Last Summer.

This is an article I wrote in August last year for the ‘Geordies Here, Geordies There’ feature in True Faith which was never published. It is a match report on the pre-season friendly between Union Berlin and Middlesbrough.

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After nearly 18 months in BerIin, I still hadn’t managed watch one of the city’s two professional clubs. In fact, I only started to force myself to watch German football in March or so this year. I had been to both the Olympiastadion (Hertha Berlin) and the Alte Försterei (Union Berlin) before, but only for a concert (the former) and to have a look around (the latter), so, when I was asked if I wanted to go see the Smoggies play against Union Berlin, I jumped at the chance. When I moved here in March 2009, Union were well on their way to winning the German Third Division, despite not being able to play at their home ground as it was undergoing reconstruction. They finished 12th in the Second Division last year (comfortably mid-table), and, following Hertha Berlin’s emphatic relegation a few months ago, Berlin’s two biggest clubs will play in the same division this season.

Just to clarify, there are actually two Union Berlins, one in the east, and one in the west of the city. SC Olympia 06 Oberschöneweide was formed in 1906, and was one of the city’s top clubs (early German football consisted of regional championships, followed by a cup competition for the winners, which determined the national champions). They originally played in blue, which led to their nickname ‘Schlosserjungs’ (‘metal-worker lads’) as their shirts resembled those traditionally worn by metalworkers, and to the cry from the fans of ‘Eisern Union’ (Iron Union), which is the club’s nickname today.

After the Second World War, the club fell into the Soviet sector of the city, and was renamed SG Union 06 Oberschöneweide. During the ’49-‘50 season, against a back-drop of escalating Cold War tension, the club finished second in their league and qualified for the National Championship. The ruling Soviet authorities, however, denied the team permission to travel outside of their zone to play, causing many of the players and coaches to flee to the West of the city, where they re-formed the club as Sport-Club Union 06 Berlin (this club would remain popular until the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 before falling into the lower leagues – it now plays in a local Berlin league). The remnants of the team that remained in the East went through many name changes, finally becoming 1. FC Union Berlin in 1966, which is also when they adopted their current colours of red and white.

After the formation of the East German state, all football teams were affiliated with an area of industry (teams with ‘Dynamo’ in the name, for example, were linked to the police or secret police forces). Union was affiliated with the East German Trade Union (the FDGB), which is why it was, and is, seen as a club for the working class. It was during this period (and especially so in the 1980s) that Union’s rivalry intensified with city-neighbours Dynamo Berlin (whose ten consecutive East German titles up until the wall fell were tainted by corruption), and the club came to be seen as a voice against the increasingly unpopular communist East German state and the all-powerful Stasi. It was, and still remains, more than just a club to its fans and, despite its lack of success (it has never won a national championship, although it won the East German Cup in 1968), it is one of Germany’s ‘Kult’ clubs.

In fact, the stadium’s recent reconstruction was completed primarily due to the efforts of over 2,000 fan volunteers, with paid labour only used for the most complex parts of the process. The rebuilt stadium holds 19,000 fans, but there are only the bare minimum of seats (there are plans to expand the seated section from 1,500 to 3,800 seats once the club has finally stabilised both its finances and its league status). One of the most striking features of the lopsided stadium (from my perspective) are the two giant nets behind each goal, separating the stands from the pitch. Each is emblazoned with a slogan – one reads ‘Eisern Union’, and the other ‘Niemals Vergessen…’ (‘Never forget’ – although I have no idea what they shouldn’t forget).

I went to the match with two mates (one Bayern fan – it’s the same as England, everyone has one Man Utd ‘fan’ as a mate – and one Kaiserslautern fan). I tried hard to explain my ambivalence towards Middlesbrough to them in German (although I failed in my translation of the term ‘nappy-muncher’). I’d been out earlier in the morning for beer, and due to the heat (high twenties without wind), shorts were the order of the day – along with a Motörhead t-shirt (it has an umlaut in the name, and I have nowt red and white), and a cool beer for the journey into Köpenick. If you’ve never tried it, Beck’s Gold is a perfect summer beer…

Walking from the toilets to the stadium. Yesterday. Last August.

The Alte Försterei (the Old Forester) is located in the middle of a wood in East Berlin. We wandered slowly through the trees as part of a sea of red, white and black (lots of German fans wear black, but I have no real idea why), and paid 11 Euros on the turnstile for a place on the terraces (it seems the prices are the same for league games – not bad. Programmes were 1.50, although very text-heavy).

The match programme. Are you getting fed up with these yesterday jokes yet?

As with the only other German Stadium I’ve seen a game at (the Rudolf Harbig Stadion – home of Dynamo Dresden), there is not much in the stadium itself. There are a series of beer and food points within the barriers, but there isn’t actually an ‘indoor’ section to the stadium (at least not for us ‘normal’ people on the terraces).

The Stadium. You know when.

The previous week, Union had come back from 3-0 down to draw with Deportivo (the team Luque looked like a good player for), but it was still hard to imagine that a team that had been in the UEFA Cup Final just four years ago (Middlesbrough! They really did! Google it!) would fail to overcome a team that have never played in the top division of a unified Germany. However, Union got off to a flying start, with Ede getting the wrong side of Hoyte in the third minute, and looping a header over the stranded Jones and into the net.

Union controlled the majority of the first half, with only Arca (who was the best player on the pitch), Flood and Robson impressing for Boro (although Robson has no right foot at all, and his permanently twisty attitude didn’t endear him to any of the fans). Felix (the Kaiserslautern fan) went to the toilet after half an hour (the toilets were portacabins outside the stadium), and missed Union’s second goal when a mishit shot fell to Brunneman, who put it beyond Jones and into the net in the 35th minute.

He also missed the Smoggies waking up after Union’s deserved second, with Bates almost immediately cracking a shot from outside the box against the bar, which bounced down over the line, seemingly, although it was hard to tell. Germans call such goals ‘Wembley goals’ after Geoff Hurst’s second in the ’66 final (which explains why they were so happy Lampard’s ‘goal’ against them was disallowed over the summer). The referee, faced with a tough decision, took the easy way out – he gave a non-existent offside. Union still had a lot more of the ball during this period, and it was only the physicality of the Smoggie strikers that they seemed unprepared for (although, based on this performance, I’m glad we didn’t sign Kris Boyd).

Seemingly there is a three-way battle over who will be Union’s first choice keeper this season, and the giant Höttecke, a new arrival from Dortmund, did himself no favours by diving early and then somehow flapping through McDonald’s long-range effort, which gave the Smoggies some undeserved hope in the 41st minute.

Felix missed that goal also, as well as the next.

Four minutes later, McDonald took a long ball in his stride beautifully, before rounding the hapless Höttecke and putting the ball in the net, sending the Smoggies in at half time on level terms. Felix returned from his ‘business’ during the interval with a big smile on his face… until he realised he’d missed three goals. Stubbornly, he refused to leave the terraces again until full time. We should have realised then that the second half would be shite…

And it was.

There was little excitement apart from the substitutions (it seems every Union player deserves a chant of ‘Football God’ after their name is announced, although whether the keeper will still be granted that privilege remains to be seen. He was applauded when he caught a ball in the second half, but I took that as being more sarcastic than supportive), and a few altercations towards the end, when both Robson and Lita got a ‘little too involved’ with members of the home team. In fact, neither team were very ‘friendly’ in their behaviour, which was typified by both teams giving the ball back as deep throw-ins, which they then pressured, after the other team had put the ball out following an ‘injury’.

Boro came into the game a lot more in the second half, showing the quality of some of their players, but without managing to really threaten the Union defence or the shaky-goalkeeper. The quality of the pitch did not help, it seemed heavy and slow throughout. I remember watching a Union game on the TV after the frozen winter, when players dribbled with the ball at their shins. I’ve played on dire pitches in Brunswick and Hazelrigg, but they were better than the Union pitch was in February. Since then they have replaced the turf, although it was still causing problems: at one point, Brunneman made a tackle, picked up the fistful of turf that came loose and struggled to stick it back into the gash he’d created.

Despite the ground only being a third-full (or two-thirds empty, depending on your viewpoint), the crowd were noisy throughout the game, creating a greater atmosphere with just over 6,000 fans than you would find at a lot of Premier League games. For a friendly. Although the nappy-munchers in attendance were largely silent.

It was a canny day out – as well as the atmosphere, it was relatively cheap and the game was very open (probably due to a lack of real quality on both sides). A season ticket for Union starts at 150 Euros (in the terrace behind one of the goals), and I am seriously considering it. First, though, I should check out a Hertha Berlin game in the interest of fairness. Perhaps when they play Union in the fourth game of the season…

Union Berlin: Höttecke, Polenz, Madouni, Göhlert, Kohlmann, Younga-Mouhani (Menz 60), Mattuschka (Peitz 81), Brunnemann (Quiring 60), Ede (Sahin 60) Kolk, Benyamina (Savran 60)

Smoggies: Jones, Hoyte, Bates (Bennett 75), McManus, Wheater, Flood (Luke Williams 75), Thomson, Arca, Robson, McDonald (Lita 75), Boyd (Miller 79).

Crowd: 6375 (plus about 100 Smoggies)

After nearly 18 months in BerIin, I still hadn’t managed watch one of the city’s two professional clubs. In fact, I only started to force myself to watch German football in March or so this year. I had been to both the Olympiastadion (Hertha Berlin) and the Alte Försterei (Union Berlin) before, but only for a concert (the former) and to have a look around (the latter), so, when I was asked if I wanted to go see the Smoggies play against Union Berlin, I jumped at the chance. When I moved here in March 2009, Union were well on their way to winning the German Third Division, despite not being able to play at their home ground as it was undergoing reconstruction. They finished 12th in the Second Division last year (comfortably mid-table), and, following Hertha Berlin’s emphatic relegation a few months ago, Berlin’s two biggest clubs will play in the same division this season.

Just to clarify, there are actually two Union Berlins, one in the east, and one in the west of the city. SC Olympia 06 Oberschöneweide was formed in 1906, and was one of the city’s top clubs (early German football consisted of regional championships, followed by a cup competition for the winners, which determined the national champions). They originally played in blue, which led to their nickname ‘Schlosserjungs’ (‘metal-worker lads’) as their shirts resembled those traditionally worn by metalworkers, and to the cry from the fans of ‘Eisern Union’ (Iron Union), which is the club’s nickname today. After the Second World War, the club fell into the Soviet sector of the city, and was renamed SG Union 06 Oberschöneweide. During the ’49-‘50 season, against a back-drop of escalating Cold War tension, the club finished second in their league and qualified for the National Championship. The ruling Soviet authorities, however, denied the team permission to travel outside of their zone to play, causing many of the players and coaches to flee to the West of the city, where they re-formed the club as Sport-Club Union 06 Berlin (this club would remain popular until the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961, before falling into the lower leagues – it now plays in a local Berlin league). The remnants of the team that remained in the East went through many name changes, finally becoming 1. FC Union Berlin in 1966, which is also when they adopted their current colours of red and white.

After the formation of the East German state, all football teams were affiliated with an area of industry (teams with ‘Dynamo’ in the name, for example, were linked to the police or secret police forces). Union was affiliated with the East German Trade Union (the FDGB), which is why it was, and is, seen as a club for the working class. It was during this period (and especially so in the 1980s) that Union’s rivalry intensified with city-neighbours Dynamo Berlin (whose ten consecutive East German titles up until the wall fell were tainted by corruption), and the club came to be seen as a voice against the increasingly unpopular communist East German state and the all-powerful Stasi. It was, and still remains, more than just a club to its fans and, despite its lack of success (it has never won a national championship, although it won the East German Cup in 1968), it is one of Germany’s ‘Kult’ clubs. In fact, the stadium’s recent reconstruction was completed primarily due to the efforts of over 2,000 fan volunteers, with paid labour only used for the most complex parts of the process. The rebuilt stadium holds 19,000 fans, but there are only the bare minimum of seats (there are plans to expand the seated section from 1,500 to 3,800 seats once the club has finally stabilised both its finances and its league status). One of the most striking features of the lopsided stadium (from my perspective) are the two giant nets behind each goal, separating the stands from the pitch. Each is emblazoned with a slogan – one reads ‘Eisern Union’, and the other ‘Niemals Vergessen…’ (‘Never forget’ – although I have no idea what they shouldn’t forget).

I went to the match with two mates (one Bayern fan – it’s the same as England, everyone has one Man Utd ‘fan’ as a mate – and one Kaiserslautern fan). I tried hard to explain my ambivalence towards Middlesbrough to them in German (although I failed in my translation of the term ‘nappy-muncher’). I’d been out earlier in the morning for beer, and due to the heat (high twenties without wind) shorts were the order of the day – along with a Motörhead t-shirt (it has an umlaut in the name, and I have nowt red and white), and a cool beer for the journey into Köpenick. If you’ve never tried it, Beck’s Gold is a perfect summer beer…

The Alte Försterei (the Old Forester) is located in the middle of a wood in East Berlin. We wandered slowly through the trees as part of a sea of red, white and black (lots of German fans wear black, but I have no real idea why), and paid 11 Euros on the turnstile for a place on the terraces (it seems the prices are the same for league games – not bad. Programmes were 1.50, although very text-heavy). As with the only other German Stadium I’ve seen a game at (the Rudolf Harbig Stadion – home of Dynamo Dresden), there is not much in the stadium itself. There are a series of beer and food points within the barriers, but there isn’t actually an ‘indoor’ section to the stadium (at least not for us ‘normal’ people on the terraces).

The previous week, Union had come back from 3-0 down to draw with Deportivo (the team Luque looked like a good player for), but it was still hard to imagine that a team that had been in the UEFA Cup Final just four years ago would fail to overcome a team that have never played in the top division of a unified Germany. However, Union got off to a flying start, with Ede getting the wrong side of Hoyte in the third minute, and looping a header over the stranded Jones and into the net. Union controlled the majority of the first half, with only Arca (who was the best player on the pitch), Flood and Robson impressing for Boro (although Robson has no right foot at all, and his permanently twisty attitude didn’t endear him to any of the fans). Felix (the Kaiserslautern fan) went to the toilet after half an hour (the toilets were portacabins outside the stadium), and missed Union’s second goal when a mishit shot fell to Brunneman, who put it beyond Jones and into the net in the 35th minute.

He also missed the Smoggies waking up after Union’s deserved second, with Bates almost immediately cracking a shot from outside the box against the bar, which bounced down over the line, seemingly, although it was hard to tell. Germans call such goals ‘Wembley goals’ after Geoff Hurst’s second in the ’66 final (which explains why they were so happy Lampard’s ‘goal’ against them was disallowed over the summer). The referee, faced with a tough decision, took the easy way out – he gave a non-existent offside. Union still had a lot more of the ball during this period, and it was only the physicality of the Smoggie strikers that they seemed unprepared for (although, based on this performance, I’m glad we didn’t sign Kris Boyd). Seemingly there is a three-way battle over who will be Union’s first choice keeper this season, and the giant Höttecke, a new arrival from Dortmund, did himself no favours by diving early and then somehow flapping through McDonald’s long-range effort, which gave the Smoggies some undeserved hope in the 41st minute. Felix missed that goal also, as well as the next. Four minutes later, McDonald took a long ball in his stride beautifully, before rounding the hapless Höttecke and putting the ball in the net, sending the Smoggies in at half time on level terms. Felix returned from his ‘business’ during the interval with a big smile on his face, until he realised he’d missed three goals. Stubbornly, he refused to leave the terraces again until full time. We should have realised then that the second half would be shite…

And it was… There was little excitement apart from the substitutions (it seems every Union player deserves a chant of ‘Football God’ after their name is announced, although whether the keeper will still be granted that privilege remains to be seen. He was applauded when he caught a ball in the second half, but I took that as being more sarcastic than supportive), and a few altercations towards the end, when both Robson and Lita got a ‘little too involved’ with members of the home team. In fact, neither team were very ‘friendly’ in their behaviour, which was typified by both teams giving the ball back as deep throw-ins, which they then pressured, after the other team had put the ball out following an ‘injury’. Boro came into the game a lot more in the second half, showing the quality of some of their players, but without managing to really threaten the Union defence or the shaky-goalkeeper. The quality of the pitch did not help, it seemed heavy and slow throughout. I remember watching a Union game on the TV after the frozen winter, when players dribbled with the ball at their shins. I’ve played on dire pitches in Brunswick and Hazelrigg, but they were better than the Union pitch was in February. Since then they have replaced the turf, although it was still causing problems: at one point, Brunneman made a tackle, picked up the fistful of turf that came loose and struggled to stick it back into the gash he’d created.

Despite the ground only being a third-full (or two-thirds empty, depending on your viewpoint), the crowd were noisy throughout the game, creating a greater atmosphere with just over 6,000 fans than you would find at a lot of Premier League games. For a friendly. Although the nappy-munchers in attendance were largely silent. It was a canny day out – as well as the atmosphere, it was relatively cheap and the game was very open (probably due to a lack of real quality on both sides). A season ticket for Union starts at 150 Euros (in the terrace behind one of the goals), and I am seriously considering it. First, though, I should check out a Hertha Berlin game in the interest of fairness. Perhaps when they play Union in the fourth game of the season…

Union Berlin: Höttecke, Polenz, Madouni, Göhlert, Kohlmann, Younga-Mouhani (Menz 60), Mattuschka (Peitz 81), Brunnemann (Quiring 60), Ede (Sahin 60) Kolk, Benyamina (Savran 60)

Smoggies: Jones, Hoyte, Bates (Bennett 75), McManus, Wheater, Flood (Luke Williams 75), Thomson, Arca, Robson, McDonald (Lita 75), Boyd (Miller 79).

Crowd: 6375 (plus about 100 Smoggies)

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What it Takes

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Neil

 

…Or learning to love the replacement no one wanted…

The face of success? Just before West Ham sacked him. Which was before Charlton and Southampton sacked him. A while ago.

Here’s a post I wrote in True Faith issue 86, written on February 20th 2011.

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After having a few cheeky little beers post-Blackburn, I got to thinking about Pardew. I mean, he really is on a hiding to nothing – no matter what happens, the fans will never feel for him in the same way we did for Keegan or Robson, or even Hughton.

Partly this is due to the way he was hired. To be fair, he did nothing wrong by accepting the job, but he will always be seen, to some extent, as Ashley’s puppet. Irregardless of the fact that he is from down south (which never stopped us warming to Hughton), the fact that he was appointed (having been recently sacked from a third-tier club) amid allegations that he is a regular at Llambias’ casino lead to speculation that this was Ashley moving someone more pliable into the position after Hughton started to get the credit for how the club was playing.

This was backed up by a contract of five and a half years, an absurd length of time in this day and age (even at more stable clubs), which basically ensured Fat Mike’s mate a hefty wedge if new owners take over the club and decide they want their own man. During conferences Pardew was keen to present himself as his own man, with the oft-repeated promise that Andy Carroll would not be going anywhere. That just goes to show how much control he really has, as something he spent so much time promising the fans would not happen promptly happened as soon as Liverpool came calling with a stupid amount of money.

There are echoes of 1997 about this situation, with Shola (Shearer (bear with me!)) succumbing to injury shortly after Carroll (Sir Les) was sold. I have to believe Pardew didn’t think Carroll would be sold as no replacement was signed during the transfer window, and Shola’s injury is a kick in the knackers of the owner, who you have to assume thought we were already safe and wouldn’t need our best striker for the rest of the year. Now, say what you like about Shola, but we have arguably lost our best two strikers as we come down to the most important part of the season.

To be honest, I have nothing really against Pardew, but his appointment still bristles, nearly two months after it was announced. Results have certainly been more consistent than under Comrade Chris (perhaps due to his ‘greater Premiership experience’…cough…), and, we have seemed to be more defensively sound. Recently though, we have been lacking a cutting-edge up front, which hopefully won’t come back to hurt us in May.

No matter what Pardew does, however, there will always be a suspicion about him. We should avoid relegation this season based on where we stand at the time of writing after Birmingham away, being only 5 points shy of the magical 40 in a season where you have to figure that 36 points will be enough to ensure safety. Say we somehow maintain our position in ninth place (or even qualify for Europe… sorry, I was becoming a ‘delusional Geordie’ there), would we say “well done Alan, thanks for ironing out some of our issues and exceeding our expectations”, or “Pardew avoided fucking up the team spirit that Hughton created. The hard work was already done and he just steadied the ship somewhat”?

I would argue that anything he achieves this season is more a case of the latter. By and large this is the same team we won promotion with, who have been moulded into some sort of collective unit. They play for each other, and the fans recognise that. This existed before Pardew.

Any progress we make between his appointment and May will be a case of evolution, not revolution. The good work was started by Hughton, and for Pardew to get more credit in the future, he would have to radically re-make the image of the team, either tactically or in the transfer market (with or, more likely, without the Carroll money).

Let’s say, two years from now, Ashley has just left the club and Pardew is still here. Newcastle are challenging for the top six (use your imagination!) with only Krul/Forster, Simpson, Stevie Taylor, Williamson, Guthrie and Shola still in the team from our current squad (entirely feasible due to potential wage restrictions on our big earners and Ashley selling off any talented youngsters). Then it could truly be called Pardew’s team (and no doubt the sale/release of our high earners and promising youngsters would be done, at least partially, with his blessing), but the suspicion will still remain. Even then, he would remain tainted by his association with Ashley.

Hughton was a quiet, understated man who managed to escape from under the shadow of Ashley, partly due to the feeling that he was successful (eventually) despite the owner. He negotiated our biggest challenge – make no mistake, if we had not been promoted last year then it would be hard to see us coming back up anytime soon.

Pardew doesn’t face the challenge Hughton did, and according to some sources, he could even be seen as complicit in the removal of a decent and popular man. No matter what he achieves, it will never be as meaningful.

He may end up liked – and no one would wish him ill while he was in charge of this club – but he will never be loved.

 

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Germany Calling

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Neil

 

…or how fan ownership works…

German Football. Yesterday. Earlier this year.

Here’s a post I wrote in True Faith issue 85, written on January 16th 2011. It’s a bit dry, but I can’t do wit and jokes about animal sexual activity every time…

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In the wake of our ownership’s reasoned decision to sack our league-winning manager with us sitting in 11th place (when most of us would have ripped the hands off anyone who would have offered that, assuming people who have that kind of power actually exist), it seems that now is a good time to look at how fan ownership works in practice in Germany.

In a time where Mike Ashley has been unable to run our club without resorting to common sense even once since sacking Fat Sam, and foreign owners have saddled Liverpool and Manure with huge debts when ‘buying’ them, fan ownership has never been a more popular solution to the ills of the modern English game. Many people refer to the way German football clubs are run as an ideal solution, the antithesis of the rampant greed and survival-at-all-costs mentality of many Premier League owners. While the German system does offer some solutions to the current problems in the English game, it does, as does any system, find itself vulnerable to its own unique problems.

To start with, saying German clubs are fan-owned is pretty misleading. With the exception of Bayer Leverkusen and VFL Wolfsburg, which were founded as the works teams of Bayer and VW respectively, all professional teams (3rd division and above) have to be majority-owned by the club itself (at least 51%). Using FC Bayern as an example, 81% of the club is owned by FC Bayern München e. V. (the members), with Adidas and Audi paying €77million and €90million respectively to each own slightly over 9% of the club. Fans can ‘buy’ membership in their clubs for a nominal annual fee (for Hertha BSC, the capital’s largest club, it is €60), which gives them some, albeit limited, voting rights. There are differences between clubs as to how this actually works in practice: once again, using Hertha as an example, the members meet twice per year, usually in May and November. In May, they vote for a board (which serves a one-year term) and in November there is a mid-term meeting to keep the members updated. The fan-elected board choose a President, who serves a four year term. The President selects a CEO, and together they choose a Manager (in England this would be the Director of Football) if there isn’t one already – or they don’t like the one they have. The Manager has a say in any coaching (managerial) appointments and is ultimately responsible for the football side of things. The example above is taken from Hertha, but the majority of German clubs are run along similar guidelines, although the length of terms and exact responsibilities may differ from club-to-club.

It is also important to realise that, as always with such situations, such mass membership will include varying degrees of member activity. Hertha has nearly 20,000 members, but only around 1,200 of its members usually turn up for meetings. There is always a danger that such a system could be open to a degree of exploitation by the more militant minorities within the membership, especially if the actual percentage of members attending meetings is so low.

So, fan-ownership is not actually correct: fan representation would be much more correct. While it would be a great thing to have a say in how our club is managed, or mismanaged as the case may be, should we adapt a similar system we would only have a choice of people to represent us. Sure, it would immediately be better than the current ridiculous situation (where it seems we are not just ignored, but our wishes are forcibly kicked in the bollocks at every turn), but in practice, once we have chosen, we can then do nothing until the next election. In the meantime, important decisions would be made on a daily basis, and our only recourse would be to not vote for the same board members next year, by which time the damage could already be done. Although the potential for someone like Mike Ashley running a club is definitely lower, as club employees do not actually have any profits going into (or losses coming out of) their own pockets, the system is not immune to corruption at board level: with ‘Average Joes’ drafted in on an unpaid basis to represent their club, there is the potential for board members to act in the interests of the President (who controls any bonus payments to board members) at the expense of the members who elected them.

The German FA’s restrictions on club ownership do, however, restrict the ability of someone, such as Putin’s monkey (Abramovich) or the dude who owns Citeh, buying up the club and using it as a personal plaything. At the end of the day, many in England would argue that this is a good thing, as this can lead to a distortion in competiveness (who can match Citeh in the transfer market?), and place a great deal of a club’s policies at the whim of someone who has no real ties to the club or the area.

There have been comments within Germany, however, saying that their system is outdated, and proposing something closer to the English model, where outside investors would be allowed to control more than 49% of the club. Hannover 96 President Martin Kind recently challenged the wisdom of the 50+1 rule, protesting that it leaves German clubs at a competitive disadvantage compared to clubs in England, Spain and Russia. He complained that under the current system, his team only managed to turnover around $70,000,000 per year, making them unable to compete with teams like Bayern and the privately-owned Wolfsburg and Leverkusen. For comparison, according to Forbes’ list from April 2010, we turned over double that, and were the twentieth richest football club in the world.

However, despite such limitations on ownership, five German clubs were ranked ahead of us in that list: FC Bayern were 5th, Schalke 04 were 11th, Hamburg 14th, Werder Bremen 16th and Borussia Dortmund 19th. With this in mind, perhaps it is naive to assume that German clubs suffer due to the restrictions on how money comes into their clubs. Perhaps some German clubs are actually extremely good at maximising revenue, despite the ‘handicap’ of not being able to sell out completely to a rich benefactor. Either way, German clubs seem happy with the current situation: Kind’s proposal was voted down by 32 of the 36 Bundesliga clubs (three teams abstained, leaving Hannover 96 as the sole voice against the status quo).

Looking at the above-mentioned ‘rich’ German clubs in more detail, it is easy to see that Bayern are obviously doing something very well (both on and off the field), despite being over 80% owned by its members. Schalke actually have a huge level of debt, comparable the debts at Liverpool, Man Utd and Real Madrid (in terms of percentage of the club’s value, at a massive 50%), although a highly generous sponsorship deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom has helped their finances. Schalke is actually 100% fan-owned, but the fact that it is still able to accumulate such levels of debt is worrying.

I spoke to a friend who is a member of Hertha and, although he can tell me his club has debts of €37 million, he can’t tell me anything more detailed about their finances than that. Despite the perceived level of fan involvement, fans are not actually kept up to date with the full picture of their club’s actual finances – and in many cases it is fair to assume that fans may not be interested in all of the grizzly details, especially if a club is doing well, as Schalke has been recently. Dortmund have a smaller proportion of debt (32% of their value – although, this doesn’t compare favourably to Bayern at 14%, Bremen and Hamburg at 0% and the Toon at 8%), and have quite a different organisational structure to other Bundesliga clubs. They, somewhat confusingly, created a new listed entity to run the club. However, the shareholders of this company are in a minority when it comes to voting at the annual meeting. The member association actually owns less than 10% of the shares in the company that runs the club, but has the majority of the votes when meetings are held. Basically, investors can buy shares in Dortmund, but the fans/members still have the largest say when it comes to board elections. Creative, albeit confusing to get the head around.

After the comprehensive vote against Kind’s proposal, the President of the German Football League commented that “The Bundesliga remains faithful to itself and will continue to build on the factors which have made a decisive contribution to making German football successful over recent decades. These are stability, continuity and being close to the fans.” And German football has certainly thrived – at least domestically. The Bundesliga has the highest attendances and the lowest ticket prices in Europe (as the majority of profits go back into the clubs, enabling them to set prices lower). In the last ten years, five different teams have won the Bundesliga (although Bayern has won it six times in this period), compared to three in England (with Manure winning it five times).

But why are the two ownership models so different?

The game was organised later in Germany and certain social factors lead to it evolving in a different way. In Germany, football became one of a number of sports that sports clubs played (alongside gymnastics, for example). These sports clubs catered for their members, who paid to be part of the club. Professional football did not arrive in Germany until the early 1960s (the ’54 World Cup winning team were amateurs), by which time the football clubs were entrenched within their sporting clubs. In England, football clubs were by-and-large independent football clubs from their foundation, and in order to build facilities, clubs had to form limited companies in order to raise the necessary financing. Simply put, in England, clubs have always been run in the boardrooms, whereas German clubs have always been run, to an extent, with the inclusion of the community.

The whole argument about which system is better is subjective, as neither solution is perfect. We currently accumulate a lot of money from around the globe due to the high quality players our league attracts, our teams are regularly amongst the elite in European competitions, and there is always the chance of a Geordie billionaire taking over our club and running the club in our interests. However, there is also the chance of a Cockney billionaire taking it over and… hang on… that has already happened. Also, our national team is shite (though personally I don’t care about that). If we changed to the German model, the league would struggle to attract the best players in the world (and whether we currently do is another argument for another time) and the club would attract less quality players (ha!), but the majority of any profit made would go back into the club and the area, and we would at least have some voice in the way our club is run.

There are differences between the two models obviously, and there is a lot more that can and will still be said on the debate as what is best for English football (and more importantly, our club).

Stripping away the arguments, the basic trade-off is between enhanced prosperity and the soul of your club.

I know which I would choose.

Keep the faith.

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