It's with shock that I read today that the president of Hamburg's FC St Pauli soccer club, Corny Littmann, has announced his immediate resignation just after the club's move into the top level of German soccer."About seven and a half years ago, I took over the helm of a significantly sinking ship," he explained on the club's website.... "We, the board, were only able to keep plugging the holes in the vessel thanks the support of our fans and members from throughout Germany and, during our four-year sail across the River Elbe, our cutter was often close to capsizing."Now, docked in the harbour, there is a magnificent pirate's ship ready to set sail and able to defy any storm to salvage points."That was always my dream and that is how I wanted to pass this ship on to its next captain: At the top."
The deal is St. Pauli is no ordinary team. This is an anti-racist, anti-fascist, pretty much anarchist soccer team which represents a shall we say bohemian area of Hamburg home to prostitutes, squatters and activists of the left wing and anarchist persuation. Opposition to fascism, sexism and homophobia has actually been included in the club constitution.
More than 20,000 fans regularly pack the home stadium, and the club has the largest proportion of female fans in German football.
Littman himself was the leagues only openly gay owner.
The following is from Reuters.
Red light buccaneers back in the big time
(Reuters) - The St Pauli district of Hamburg is famous for prostitution, pop music and a pirate flag that will fly over the Bundesliga again next season, right on cue for the centenary of a uniquely popular club.
Sports
Tens of thousands of fans took to the Reeperbahn, the street at the heart of Hamburg's red light district, to celebrate the return of FC St Pauli to the top flight of German football this month.
No one really expects St Pauli to stay in the Bundesliga for long, but the prospect of Bayern Munich and the rest of the German elite visiting the Millerntor is enough for now, at a club where success has never been measured by trophies.
"If you look back you'll see we've never actually won a title," Stefan Schatz, of the St Pauli fan project, told Reuters. "We've come up again this time as runners-up, which is typical for us.
"For a team that's never won anything we're amazingly popular."
The Millerntor stands barely more than a goal kick away from the Reeperbahn, still the centre of the city's sex trade, just as it was when The Beatles honed their live act at clubs on and around the street in the early 1960s.
Such an earthy setting has always suited a football club that has long been defined by the alternative fan scene that grew up among punks and left-wing supporters, and whose players run out on to the pitch to 'Hells Bells' by heavy rock band AC/DC.
Still fiercely anti-racist, and still with the brown-and-white first-team colours, there are nevertheless signs that the modern business of football is catching up with a club that less than a decade ago was on the brink of extinction.
RAMSHACKLE STATE
At first glance from the car park, the stadium appears to be in the same ramshackle state as ever -- the corrugated iron of the near stand's roof peeling away, the pillars rusting and the plastic seats faded to a dusty shade of red.
However, on the other side of the ground a transformation is well underway. A gleaming new main stand should be completed in time for the centenary season, part of a rebuilding plan that will eventually see the whole stadium modernized.
New offices and a shop have been in place for some time at a club now run by the theatre owner Corny Littmann and even on a rainy workday morning there are dozens of customers queuing up to buy merchandise plastered with the skull-and-crossbones symbol that has become famous far beyond this modest corner of Hamburg.
"When we played third division with only three sides to the ground, with one stand torn down, we still had 15,000 coming to every game," Schatz said.
"These are the days when you're proud of the reputation you have, with fans from all over the world coming and feeling connected with St Pauli. That makes me proud to be part of the St Pauli thing.
"At the same time it's kind of annoying that now you can't go anywhere without people wearing skull-and-crossbones T-shirts. For some it is just a fashion accessory."
The fan organisation is based round the corner from the new club offices in shabby premises serving as a meeting place for supporters and filled with battered, old, brown, leather sofas, scarves from companion fan groups around the world and, of course, a table football game.
"The whole thing with the skull and crossbones happened 25 years ago when punks from the squatter houses on the harbour street came to St Pauli," Schatz said. "Now I think in Germany we are top five in merchandise sales. It's crazy."
CHARITY CONCERTS
That there is anything left to market is something of a surprise given the dire financial situation in 2003 caused by successive relegations to the regional third division.
The club called on the community to rally round and the response was vigorous. A "Swig for St Pauli" weekend in local pubs brought in a chunk of cash, sales of "savoir" T-shirts, charity concerts and friendlies added much more and the club's third-division status was eventually saved.
In 2007 they climbed back into the professional ranks of the second division and three years on they have timed their promotion to the Bundesliga to perfection -- 100 years after the club started playing organized football matches.
Other recent highlights include a run to the semi-finals of the German Cup in 2006, and four years previously a victory over Bayern Munich that inspired the term "Weltpokalsiegerbesieger" or "World-champion beaters." Bayern were world club champions at the time and T-shirts bearing the newly coined slogan are a common sight among fans to this day.
"We are always the underdog, always popular everywhere," said taxi driver Lars Jacobsen before going into the shop to take a look through the merchandise, which includes toasters, rugby shirts, baby clothes and ashtrays -- all with the familiar skull-and-crossbones logo.
"Now we have another chance to play Bayern Munich here. For us that's like the Champions League."
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
No comments:
Post a Comment