Bundesliga - Day 30: So that's it then...

Eintracht Frankfurt - Borussia Dortmund 1:1
Hamburger SV - FC Schalke 04 0:1
Karlsruher SC - Werder Bremen 3:3
Hannover 96 - Hertha BSC Berlin 2:2
1. FC Nürnberg - Arminia Bielefeld 2:2
FC Energie Cottbus - FC Hansa Rostock 2:1
VfL Bochum - MSV Duisburg 1:1
Bayern München - VfB Stuttgart 4:1
Bayer Leverkusen - VfL Wolfsburg 2:2

So the german championship seems to be decided by now with Bayern winning comfortably against Stuttgart last Sunday, they now are 12 points ahead of the 2nd place and with only four more games to play they should take the title this year. So a rather boring season is coming to an end, at least when you talk about the top of the table. When you look down to the bottom it's a completely different ballgame. There are still five teams in contention for the three relegation spots and they do everything they can to stay down there. Last weekend Nürnberg looked like they were about to finally leave the cellar of the Bundesliga when they were leading 2-0 against Bielefeld at halftime. Cottbus were 0-1 down against Rostock, Duisburg looked good against Bochum leading 1-0. 45 minutes later the tables had turned and verything was back to take one. This is the only exciting stuff happening in this league at the moment. Funny trivia fact: A few minutes from the final whistle on Saturday all matches expect one (Hamburg vs Schalke) were tied.

In the 2nd division of german football, the 2. Bundesliga, it seems that no team really wants to get promoted. Borussia Mönchengladbach seem to stay out of trouble at the moment, but they only drew this weekend and Hoffenheim seems to ressurect themselves. Cologne plays their usual up-and-down form which noone seem to understand. They play great matches and then a week later they look like a completely different team. If they manage to get promoted they will go down again at the end of that season. Right now it's M'Gladbach, Hoffenheim and Mainz on the three lucky places at the top of the table.

Way down the slope at Verbandsliga level, Fortuna Cologne finally started a winning streak and is now in third place, only behind local rivals Viktoria Cologne and VfL Leverkusen. It seems that all the promotion for the project www.deinfussbalclub.de finally seems to pay off a little bit as the attendance figures have risen slightly over the past few home games. around 1.000 people showed up which is quite a lot for 5th division football in Germany. The president, Klaus Ulonska and Sönke Wortmann, the man who started the project, have been going to lots of events and talkshows lately. They even have a story in THE german football magazine "11 Freunde" this month. And although I really don't know what to make of the whole thing it still feels good that a club like Fortuna is getting a little more attention. Past weekend's game against Hennef was won 2-0 and seemed to have been a lucky win with the second goal scored in added time.

So with the excitement gone from the Bundesliga the eyes of german football fans turn elsewhere, to England, for example. Last weekend's clash between Chelsea and Manchester United was an interesting one from the german perspective, since Michael Ballack is that captain of the german national team and the audience doesn't get that many chances to see him play over here. Most of the action takes place on pay-per-view TV so the chances to see him on free TV are limited to the top games in the Premier League. The way he presented himself must have been very reassuring for the german fanbase. He scored twice and looked like the "leader" most people expect him to be during this summer's Euro championship in Switzerland and Austria. The 2-1 victory over ManU brought back some excitement to the English championship. Both teams are now level on points and only the goal difference puts ManU up front at the moment.

And while I had the chance to watch a J-League game I really found it interesting of how the fans in Japan participate in the game. They are singing constantly, something which also happens in baseball. This may sound like they are trying to hard and some people might even say that this is all because of the strange discipline and collective thinking of Asians in general, but just to hear the crowd sing in the match between Urawa Red Diamonds and Consadole Sapporo was very refreshing. Urawa was down quickly, then equalized, got behind again, scored another equalizer and finally went in front in the second half and all the time the crowd was there singing and chanting. So there wasn't any real difference from a european game. There was though with the goalkeepers. Both didn't look good at all so it might be a good idea to get someone like Oliver Kahn to go to Japan. Although he already might have abandoned that idea in favour of staying in Germany.
The level of play was rather decent although I have to admit that I am a bit biased when it comes to japanese football. I really like their way of playing a very fast and technical football, they try to play like Arsenal. Something they can't accomplish, that's true, but it's nice to watch. The level is definetely higher than the one played in the american MLS. The season over there is just getting on the way so it might be a little too early to make predictions. The Reds got off to a lousy start and it seemed they were just continuing from where they left off at the end of last season when the suffered a meltdown losing the championship to Kashima Antlers on the last day of play. But they regrouped and now seem to do just fine. The last goal of the match against Sapporo was a wonderful counterattack with former Frankfurt and Hamburg player Takahara Naohiro laying up the ball for teammate Edmilson (4-2).

Premier League: It's all about buying and selling

With news like this it's no wonder that some parts of the fan beses in English football turn their backs on the clubs they love. Apparently American Liverpool FC owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett Jr have recieved an offer of around £500million by an Arab investment group. And they bought the club just a year ago. We all know it costs a lot of money to run a football team and we all know that you need a huge stadium to generate at least some money. And I know that Anfield compared to other stadiums is rather small. But buying and selling football clubs just like they are a pile of stocks is just beyond my imagination. In fact I am very happy that I am a member of the football club I love and support and that I have a say in what happens with the club. Well, a small say, but it's better than nothing.
Well, maybe Mr Hicks and Mr Gilett just weren't prepared for European football with a manager like Rafa Benitez screaming for more and more money to buy new players. That's what life is like without a salary cap.

Three examples of sports gone wrong

I stumbled across some thing over the past few days and I though I should share those with whoever wants to read this. There was this article in the New York Times for example, which deals with the strange halftime rituals during Jets games. Apparently hordes of men assemble at a certain gate during halftime and yell at women to expose their breasts. What the fuck?! Now I have always been interested in fan-dom and whatever surrounds the people who worship a team to the extent that they go competely crazy and have no other thing in their life besides their love for a club. But this is something way too strange and it sounds rather astonishing that noone is taking any action against what is happening there at this infamous Gate D. It's always disghusting to see those so called documentaries about spring break idiots on German television where they praise and hail those drunkards who only have alcohol and bare breasts on their mind. So this article - at least to me - sounds like there are some college jocks gone berzerk during halftime in New York. If this was to happen at a football match in Germany I don't think there would be any difference. But there would at least ONE person who would go against this. Especially with a lot more women attending the games nowadays. Some people over might just turn around and say that that's just those crazy uncivilzed American blokes, but I don't think that something like that should be a ritual anywhere. It's playinly disgusting.

Other news came from England, or should I say Thailand (courtesy of the Guardian Blog? Manchester City coach Sven-Göran Eriksson went to Bangkok to pay a visit to City owner Thaksin Shinawatra, former prime minister of Thailand. And when he went back to Britain he brought with him three players, Thai internationals, to have them sign to Man City. One of them seems to be good enough to make it to the first team, but the other two will be sent to farm teams somewhere else in Europe.
Now completely agree that is not the game it was some 20 years ago. It isn't even the same game it was 10 years ago. At least not from an economical point of view.The money clubs pay for players to sign them has risen constantly and so has the money the clubs pay their players as a monthly salary. There weren't any players making over ₤ 100.000 a week some ten years ago! But you can't help it. Where'S success there's big money and that's it. No need to whine about that. We as fans want to see great football, we have to acceppt that there is a certain price to pay. And I don't mean the constantly rising ticket prices. But there is a limit to what a fan should take from his club. And when they introduce players to your team who will never (no offense to the Thai football, but I just don't see it happen...) make it in a professional league it just sounds too much like there is one more loony owner who excersises his rights to play with his new tool. This is simply ridiculous. There's a difference in playing friendly matches in Asia and buying players.

Last but not least the story in Germany at the moment. The conflict between the top managers of Bayern Munich and their fan base (courtesy of allesaussersport.de, a German blog - all German). This all started a few days ago when Bayern manager Uli Hoeness, the most hated figure in German football, attacked a club member at the yearly members gathering for Bayern Munich. The fellow was complaining about the atmosphere and that was when Uli Hoeness snapped. Just to get an impression, this is a video of the speech he gave as a reply.



He's furious about the attitude the fans show. They, in his opinion, should be grateful that they have such a wonderful stadium, they are responsible for the atmosphere at the ground and that they only pay € 7,- for a terrace ticket. He's right with all of them, but does that mean a fan has to stay silent when there are certain things that are bugging him? There has always been some incidents between to bosses of Bayern and some of the groups who do a lot for the chanting and choreography in the "Kurve", where the terraces are located. The mood is getting more and more unfriendly since Mr Hoeness went on local television to accuse two groups that they where trying to achieve "Italian surroundings" in Munich. Now remember that in Italy's Serie A there are certain fan groups who call themselves "Ultras" and who effectively control large areas of the stadium. They control who enters the blocks where they stand, they control the singing, sometimes they even control what players is signed. There was this famous incident when a black player was about to sign a contract with Hellas Verona when the racist part of the fan base went on a rampage and the president pulled way from signing the player. The power of the "Ultras" could be seen a fortnight ago when they laid their grip on Italy again after a fan of Lazio Rome was shot by a police officer at a motorway parking space before a game.
The word "Ultra" has a totally different meaning in Germany and maybe that's why Mr Hoeness is a little bit confused. Ultras in Germany are something different than hooligans. Although there might be certain areas where those two groups overlap there is a difference.

I won't go into the details, if you are a German native speaker allesaussersport.de has it all wrapped up brilliantly, but this episode has all what it takes to refuel my disgust for someone like Herr Hoeness. At one time he's all about helping the fans with everything. But on the other hand he just doesn't seem to understand at what lengths some people go for their club. And right now he's on the verge of smashing everything he built up over the past 30 years. We'll see how they get out of this...

The usual debate: British secretary complains about footballers wages

There is an article on Guardian Unlimited which deals with the British sports minister complaing about the wages of professional football players. Now we all know that those guys who play in the big leagues earn a lot of money and, well, yes, I have to admit that sometimes I have to shake my head as well when I hear about the sums which are payed for certain players. But then again, isn't this obvious? With all the media attention and the sponsoring of sports during the past years there wasn't really any doubt that with the money that is payed for the broadcasting rights on the rise there will also be a huge rise in salaries for players in professional leagues. And as long as there are clubs who are willing to pay that much for certain players those sums will get payed. Period.
What might be true though is that "people in the street" will find it harder to afford tickets for 1st division games in Europe. Although this might not be true for Germany yet the tendency is going towards that direction. At the moment prices for football matches are very low in Germany compared to other sporting tickets or leagues elsewhere. But with clubs turning into huge companies which are trying to get profit first it will only be a matter of time until prices will rise. I for myself don't see any reason why I should pay high prices if I don't want to. In the end what it comes down to is that it's the individual decision of every fan. If you don't like it, don't pay it. I've been going to my 5th division crap team, I pay my money there, yes, I think it's expensive, but still I go there because I want to, so why should I complain?

Update: As one would have expected it didn't take long for the clubs to reply.