In both countries, there were ‘under the table’ ways of paying supposedly amateur players before clubs became professional. A nationwide professional league, the Bundesliga, was not established until 1963. The difference between the two countries was that the process happened about 40 years later in Germany. In both countries it was played by upper class or middle class amateurs then became popular with the working class and the pressure to pay players came after that. The evolution of football in England and Germany was similar. Following a game in 1973, when Bremen fans shouted insults at the Bayern team bus, the players got off the bus and fought them. In April 1924, the German national team was made up of players from rival clubs Nuremberg and Fürth who refused to speak to each other and travelled to the game in two different railway coaches. The replay ended in a draw too and was stopped when injuries and players sent off reduced the Nuremberg team to 7 players. Nuremberg and Hamburg played for 3 hours and 9 minutes before the referee stopped play on account of darkness. The stories include an account of a championship final that took place in 1922, before substitutions and penalty shootouts. I have a feeling that Birmingham City fans are divided into two groups: those that are content to be customers and those that want to be more connected as German fans are. It also discusses the difference between German and British fans’ views of their clubs. It’s packed with great stories of the characters that have enlivened German football from the days when it was seen as a dangerous foreign pastime up to when two German teams met in the Champions League final. You don’t have to be a fan of German football to enjoy this book.
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