Well, it’s fair to say it has been a

busy month. Yorkshire St Pauli as

a group is seemingly getting

bigger by the week, and I’d like to

take a moment to thank all those

who have assisted in running it on

a daily basis - the website, the

social networks, the merchandise,

the newsletter, it takes an

enormous amount of effort to put

it all together and maintain it, so

I’d like to thank all those involved.

One great example of this is the

recent closure of our venue, ‘The

Well’. We were only made aware

of this two weeks ago—and it

meant we had to find a new venue

immediately. After the initial

disappointment of losing a great

venue, we put our minds together

- got a shortlist of potential new

venues, and we’ve found one

already, just in time for our

upcoming stream this Sunday

18th against Aue. The new venue

is ‘Wharf Chambers’, which we will

have more details of further in the

newsletter.

I’d also like to take a minute to

thank the staff at ‘The Well’ for

their efforts in recent months. It’s

closure is a shame, not only for

Yorkshire St Pauli, but for local

music in Leeds in general. The

Well is one of the most well-

known gig venues in Yorkshire and

for it to close is a huge

disappointment. I hope some day

it’ll be back up and running, the last

thing we need is another Italian

restaurant.

One other great success in recent

weeks has been our website. When

we first started out as a group we

didn’t really use the website, it was

mainly just a source of information

for those who didn’t want to use our

social networking sites in order to

find dates of streams etc. But we’ve

revamped the site and started to

put a lot more content onto it

recently, with weekend previews

and reviews, and also a new

prediction competition. Last month

we had 1,200 visitors to our

website, and we have already

surpassed 600 visitors this month.

As a result (and because we tend to

forget our website address when

we’ve had a couple of beers!) we’ve

updated our web address to

www.yorkshirestpauli.com .

Hopefully this will spread the word

of St Pauli, and Yorkshire St Pauli,

even further.

So, a new venue, a new(ish)

website and hopefully a promotion

push to look forward to. Hope you

all enjoy the newsletter and thanks

for reading!

P.S - The new t-shirt design we

announced in our last newsletter

will be ‘unveiled’ on our website in

the next few days.

Scott

5th Edition

Editors Note

March 2012

Next Streams:

Sunday 18th March v

Aue

Saturday 7th April v

FSV Frankfurt

Sunday 22nd April v

Hansa Rostock

Sunday 29th April v

Dynamo Dresden

Sunday 5th May v

Paderborn

Streams shown at

Wharf Chambers,

starting at 4.30pm.

Contact Us

Twitter: @YorksStPauli

Facebook: Yorkshire St

Pauli

Website:

yorkshirestpauli.com

St Pauli UK Forum:

stpaulifansuk.forumup

.co.uk

It has been an incredible season in the

2.Bundesliga so far. The top 5 have

achieved at least 50 points each so far, and are separated by only 3 points. St Pauli

were automatically promoted from the

2.Bundesliga two years ago with 64 points, but will probably need a few more this time

if they are going to achieve promotion.

With only 9 matchdays to go before the regular season draws to a close, here’s our

preview of those in and around the

promotion push and their chances of

promotion to the Bundesliga.

Greuther Fürth

Remaining fixtures:

1860 Munich (A) Karlsruhe (H)

Aue (A)

Cottbus (H)

Braunschweig (A) St Pauli (H)

FSV Frankfurt (A)

Fortuna Düsseldorf (H) Hansa Rostock (A)

After finishing 4th and narrowly missing out on the playoff position last year, Fürth have

had a very impressive season and currently

sit top of the table with 9 games to play. Fürth have consistently finished towards the

top of the 2.Bundesliga table in the last

decade, but have always missed out on the promotion places. They have finished 5th or

above in 8 of the last 12 2.Bundesliga

campaigns.

Their success this season has mainly been

down to their impressive home form, having

won 11 of their 13 home games - the only defeats coming against Eintracht Frankfurt

and Eintracht Braunschweig. They also have

the best defensive record in the league, conceding only 20 goals in 25 games, by far

the best defensive record in the division.

Prediction: Fürth have a great chance of

securing automatic promotion, which will

hinge on their hugely important games

against promotion rivals in the coming weeks. They have a highly important trip to

relatively local rivals 1860 Munich this

coming weekend, and they will welcome

promotion rivals St Pauli and Fortuna

Düsseldorf to the Trolli Arena before the season

finishes. You would expect they would win the majority of their other games which come

against teams threatened by relegation, so if

they can pick up points against their rivals they should be promoted.

Eintracht Frankfurt

Remaining fixtures:

Dynamo Dresden (H) Union Berlin (A)

Bochum (H)

Duisburg (A) Ingolstadt (H)

Aue (H)

Aachen (A)

1860 Munich (H) Karlsruhe (A)

Having spent plenty of money in the summer transfer window, Eintracht Frankfurt were huge

favourites to win the 2.Bundesliga this season -

however it has been as easy for them as many expected. That said, they sit in 2nd place and

have a great chance of going back to the

Bundesliga at the first attempt after relegation last season.

Eintracht Frankfurt’s main problem has been their form against key promotion rivals. They

drew with both Paderborn and St Pauli at home

and subsequently lost the corresponding away

fixtures, they drew both games against Fortuna Düsseldorf and lost away at 1860 Munich. But

they are still unbeaten at home (8 wins, 4

draws) and have picked up 24 points away from home– a total only Paderborn can equal.

Prediction: The remaining fixtures look relatively easy for Frankfurt, perhaps the

easiest of the chasing pack. But there are a few

potential banana skins where they could drop points, Dynamo Dresden have had a good

season by all accounts, a trip to Union Berlin is

never easy and Aachen have improved in recent

months. That said, Eintracht Frankfurt are favourite to win the league, and with their run-

in it’s easy to see why. It’s quite foreseeable

that they could go unbeaten in the remaining 9 games and leave the rest of the promotion

chasing pack behind.

Page 2

The Curtain Call

Fortuna Düsseldorf

Remaining fixtures:

Cottbus (A) Braunschweig (H)

St Pauli (H)

Hansa Rostock (A)

FSV Frankfurt (H) Dynamo Dresden (A)

Union Berlin (H)

Greuther Fürth (A) Duisburg (H)

After such an impressive start to the season, the wheels fell off for the Düsseldorf

promotion campaign just before the winter

break when they lost at home to Paderborn. After that game they went 5 games without

a win, including a draw against Eintracht

Frankfurt and a defeat against 1860 Munich.

But recent wins against relegation strugglers Karlsruhe and Aue have seen

them put themselves back in contention for

automatic promotion and they currently sit 3rd.

Fortuna’s main weakness is the amount of draws they have picked up away from

home. They have only lost 1 away game all

season, but have picked up 7 draws. It has been there debatable away form in recent

seasons that has cost them dearly, and

they’ll be hoping it doesn’t cost them again.

Prediction: Düsseldorf have two particularly

important games in their run-in, with a

Monday night home game against St Pauli at the start of April, followed by an away

trip to face Greuther Fürth on the

penultimate weekend of the season. They’ll then finish the season with a home game

against local rivals Duisburg, which could be

a huge game for both sides.

Duisburg are struggling with relegation and

could well need points on the final day to keep their place in the 2.Bundesliga. It has

the potential to be a huge game for both

sides.

Düsseldorf have a great chance of

promotion, and if they can beat St Pauli and

Greuther Fürth they’ll have every chance of securing promotion.

St. Pauli

Remaining fixtures:

Aue (A) Cottbus (H)

Fortuna Düsseldorf (A)

FSV Frankfurt (A)

Union Berlin (H) Greuther Fürth (A)

Hansa Rostock (H)

Dynamo Dresden (A) Paderborn (H)

It has been a successful first season in charge

for Andre Schubert. He had the unenviable task

of replacing Holger Stanislawski at the end of

last season, but has proven his abilities so far

this season. It’s been even more impressive

when you factor in the injuries sustained to key

players such as Carlos Zambrano, who missed

the first half of the season and Marius Ebbers,

who has had niggling injuries in recent months

and has been a huge loss.

St Pauli have 5 more points at this stage of the

season than they did 2 years ago, when they

were promoted in 2nd place. It’s just

unfortunate that the clubs around them have

also done equally as well.

Prediction: St Pauli face 3 of the top 5 in the

run-in, the hardest run-in of the promotion

candidates. Whilst it may be the hardest run-in

however, it’s also an opportunity to take points

from those around them. In addition to this,

they face a match against Hansa Rostock and

Dynamo Dresden in the final weeks of the

season, two usually fiery games that could be

pivotal to the promotion campaign.

With the return of Zambrano and Ebbers

amongst others in time for the final weeks of

the season, St Pauli have every chance of

securing promotion as long as they can pick up

points against the sides around them. It could

all go down to the final day, with St Pauli

hosting Paderborn at the Millerntor, will the

winner take the prize?

Page 3

Paderborn

Upcoming fixtures:

Ingolstadt (A) Duisburg (H)

Braunschweig (A)

1860 Munich (H)

Aue (A) Cottbus (H)

Karlsruhe (A)

FSV Frankfurt (H) St Pauli (A)

Perhaps the surprise package of the season, Paderborn have had a great season so far.

10 years ago Paderborn were in the the

Regionalliga Nord, but have achieved relative success in recent seasons. They

have been a determined, hard-working side

all season and deserve to be in contention

for promotion going into the final weeks of the season.

They were humbled a couple of weeks ago in a 5-1 hammering away to Greuther Fürth,

but they picked up a vital 4-2 win in the

home tie against Eintracht Frankfurt to keep them in touch with the other promotion

chasing sides.

Prediction: Paderborn have struggled of

late, only able to draw at home against both

Bochum and Dynamo Dresden - points which could cost them dearly towards the

end of the season. But they’ve surprised

many people this season, and have picked

up points against sides when they weren’t really expected to do so. If they can pick up

points against the relegation strugglers they

face in coming weeks, they could go into the final game of the season at the Millerntor

would a chance of promotion.

1860 Munich

Upcoming fixtures:

Greuther Fürth (H) Dynamo Dresden (A)

Hansa Rostock (H)

Paderborn (A)

Duisburg (H) Bochum (A)

Ingolstadt (H)

Eintracht Frankfurt (A) Aachen (H)

The lions had forced themselves into contention for the promotion race, but have faltered in

recent weeks. A last gasp equaliser against St

Pauli a couple of weeks ago had meant they were realistic contenders, but they lost 3-1 at

the weekend to FSV Frankfurt and then could

only draw 0-0 with strugglers Aue midweek in a

re-arranged fixture from earlier in the season. After that result, they now sit in 6th place, 7

points away from Paderborn above them, 10

points off Greuther Fürth at the top of the table.

1860 Munich started the season poorly, losing 6

of their opening 12 games. But they changed that form around in November, going on a run

of 9 unbeaten, seeing them win 7 of those

games. This put them on the fringes of the promotion race but they haven’t been able to

keep up that form in the last couple of weeks

and now seem long shots to finish any higher up the table.

Prediction: 1860 have a huge task ahead even

if they want to reach the 3rd place playoff. They face Greuther Fürth at home this weekend, and

anything but a win would seemingly rule them

out of the promotion race. But we wouldn’t want to rule them out just yet, it’s a crazy

league, and anything can happen!

Page 4

Team Points

Eintracht Frankfurt 73

Greuther Fürth 72

Fortuna Düsseldorf 71

St Pauli 71 (4th on goal difference)

Paderborn 67

1860 Munich 59

After several years of following St

Pauli, one of our founding members

Mick decided to head to Hamburg for

the first time to watch the recent game

against Karlsruhe. This is his story of

the weekend...

Sunday March 11th

Well, it was a beautiful sunny Sunday

morning in Leeds and my journey was about

to begin. Bag packed and with a tearful

send off from my 7yr old I was on my way,

calling in to get Dave Doughman, singer

with Swearing at Motorists & St Pauli

resident, a box of PG Tips.

Things didn’t start off too well, engineering

works meant the train to the airport was not

only delayed but diverted as well. Cue

nervous foot tapping and frantic watch

checking. Made it, time to relax, got a

window seat.

I arrived at Hamburg Airport and began

what felt like a 2 mile walk to the exit/S

Bahn. Saw plenty of USP graffiti on the way

into central Hamburg then it was off to find

my hotel, which wasn't easy as it is now

nicely hidden by a giant metal container,

which lines the street during the much

protested against gentrification of St Pauli.

The Kogge "Rock n Roll Hotel” wasn't

exactly ”rockin” when I got there at about

6.00 pm, two members of staff and one

customer were sitting in the dimly lit bar in

stony silence while some obscure reggae

played in the background. I was given a

very warm welcome and even offered a shot

of my choice, I'm not a drinker so I kindly

declined the offer.

After unpacking in my sparse but clean

room I venture off to explore the famous

Reeperbahn, I sort of knew what to expect

but I still found it to be a sad street trying

hard to mask exploitation and a lot of

begging with bright lights. In need of food I

followed various recommendations and went

to Kombase, a Mexican restaurant right next

door to the Kogge. I had the Potato & Beef

Burrito with a beer. The food was absolutely

delicious. I'm afraid I went to bed after my

meal, it had been a long day and I was

knackered.

Monday March 12th...MATCH DAY....

I'd arranged to meet Dave, who had kindly

offered, via Twitter, to show me round. He

found it highly amusing that I suggested we

met outside McDonalds. As he’d read that I was

something of an anarchist at heart, he thought

I might be about to stage some sort of protest.

We met outside the St Pauli shop to be on the

safe side. After showing me where the Beatles

had played we moved away from the

Reeperbahn and into the residential area of St

Pauli, this was a much more pleasurable

experience. There was a strong sense of a

community battling against the onslaught of

regeneration which I found inspiring. SOS St

Pauli placards, stickers & posters were on

nearly every window, lamppost & wall. It really

began to hit me that FCSP is more than a

football club to everybody here. It's the focal

point for the community to show the world that

things can be and should be different.

Anyway after a coffee we made our way to the

Millentor. I was actually here, six years after

first seeing that t-shirt here I was stood

outside. And better was to come, Dave's young

son is at the kindergarten at the Millentor, he

pulled a key from his pocket and let himself in,

me following behind like some giddy school kid

thinking "he's got his own key" "are we allowed

to do this?". Up to the kindergarten we went

and after a quick word with the staff I was

standing above the player’s tunnel looking out

onto an empty Millentor. Cheers Dave, I can't

put into words what that meant, it's a feeling a

word doesn't exist for.

"Get a grip, Mick, you’re 47", I can hear you

say.

After some pizza we went our separate ways

but exchanged numbers to meet up at the

Page 5

@Traindriverdad Goes To Hamburg.

game. I was slightly nervous as I got ready

for the game, would the Fanladen have

forgotten I was coming, would I have come

all this way just to watch it in the pub?

So at 15.30, I couldn’t wait any longer, I

made my way to the Fanladen. The place

was already a hive of activity, people

stapling the fanzine together, a guy getting

the coffee machine going & a table football

match was in full swing. At the back was a

small queue of people collecting tickets and

buying the first beer of the day. I introduced

myself and asked if there was a ticket

reserved in my name. He began to flick

through what seemed like endless pages of

names. “That’s me, there at the bottom” my

name was there, the only one in bold

capitals, the Special One as I like to think

they were thinking. For anyone who attends

matches in England, you might want to look

away now. “That will be 12 Euros

please”. Yes that’s correct 12 Euros. I

bought myself a few goodies and had a good

look round. Scarves from all over Europe

adorn the walls but couldn’t hide my

pleasure at seeing pride of place, under the

T.V. going to our own Republica

International from Leeds.

People were beginning to arrive with rolls of

woodchip wallpaper under their arms, these

I was told contained messages of protest

against the DFB safely hidden from public

view until inside the stadium. I watched

these coming and goings for about half an

hour then decided to take a leisurely walk to

the Jolly Roger. I arrived quite early and was

met outside by a legless (no legs and drunk)

man in a wheel chair who was overjoyed to

find I was from Leeds, he began to list, in no

particular order, every Leeds United player

he knew, he knew a lot. Inside the Jolly

Roger I ordered my first Astra of the trip

and began to look at all the stickers that

cover every wall in there, a couple of

Yorkshire St Pauli stickers are in there now.

Outside I had the pleasure of meeting up

with Stephan Priess one of our Facebook

followers, don’t you just love how the

internet brings us together.

It was now time to walk over to the Stadium

and begin to soak up the growing

atmosphere, night games really are unique. It

was still over an hour and a half to kick off

but the fan shop was full and the Wurst stand

was doing a roaring trade, I had to try a curry

wurst, not bad but wish I’d had a normal one.

I rang home from outside the ground, like

some over excited school kid, they all think

I’m mad but they know NOTHING. Had half an

hour to wait before the gates opened so I just

found somewhere to sit and watch the

growing crowds. It was then that I realised

that I was sitting next to a rather drunk cross

eyed beer seller with a fixation with my cherry

docs, I just nodded a lot and we both kept

repeating “shiny”. I’m sure I was part of some

German “You’ve been framed”. I made my

escape when someone else caught his

attention and joined the queue for the

Südkurve. Inside I made my way down to the

fence, where the ultras were hanging the last

of their banners, down near the player’s

tunnel I asked a young lad if I could get our

banner up somewhere. He was rather thrilled

that I’d come over from England and began to

tell me that the ultras love to have people

over and then moved his banner so we could

get ours on the fence (TV people stood in

front of it for most of the game).

With kick off approaching and the terraces

full, the singing started. This as you know

goes on all game. The noise was deafening as

“Welcome to the Hell of St Pauli” began to

echo around the Millentor, this chant seemed

to go for about 10 minutes until the first

“Dong” of “Hells Bell’s”. That bell just makes

the hairs on the back of your neck stand on

end. The noise seemed to reach 11 (spinal

tap) and I was part of it...

The match itself was a pretty scrappy affair,

with St Pauli struggling to breakdown a

stubborn Karlsruhe, until of course the ball fell

to Moritz Volz and...well you know the rest.

There seemed to be a slight delay in the

crowd’s reaction, think they, like me had

become more interested in the guys leading

the chanting but when the reaction came it

was amazing. Not only had St Pauli scored but

they scored in front of me. After that the

game returned to the scrappy game it had

been before that piece of magic, a game of

Page 6

few chances and St Pauli just missing that

killer touch, even the introduction of Ebbers,

which raised the volume levels again,

couldn’t bring the goals.

I think the enduring memory that will stay

with me is the unflinching support for the

team. The nonstop singing was a joy and to

be a part of this is something very special.

The final whistle was met with wild

celebrations in the stands, the last 5

minutes lasted an eternity, you know what

we’re like at giving away late goals. I met

up with Dave and his young son after the

game and we went for a celebration drink

outside the Jolly Roger. We then walked

back to his flat, said our goodbyes and then

it was time for me to dodge the prostitutes

on the way back to my hotel. I failed

miserably. These women leap out of the

darkness and attach themselves to your

arm like leeches. They take some shaking off I

can tell you. I finally made it back to my hotel

after about four of these attacks.

I had another couple of Astra’s then called it a

night, three beers in one night is three beers

more than I’m used to.

Tuesday March 13th

Woke up feeling a bit rough, alcohol is no friend

of mine. Had time for a walk down by the river

Elbe and went down into the Elbe Tunnel, an

amazing piece of architecture, a spot of lunch

and then it was time to check out of the Kogge

and come home. It was an experience I’ll never

forget.

Thanks to everyone who made it possible and

I’LL BE BACK.

Mick Parker

@traindriverdad

Page 7

Lack of democracy in German Football

At the moment the DFB (German Football

Association) and the police are trying to

destroy the supporters’ culture in Germany. We, the fans of St. Pauli, are

supposed to deal with especially hard

punishments.

Currently you can see that on two cases: The first one is the decision of the DFB in

the “till roll-case”.

At the home game versus Eintracht

Frankfurt a till roll, which was part of a

choreography sequence, hit Frankfurt’s captain Pirmin Schwegler on his head. He

wasn’t hurt.

Obviously it doesn’t interest the DFB that it

was the intention of the person, who threw

it, to support the team visually, the roll

just accidently didn’t scroll, no one got hurt, the “perpetrator” turned himself in

and that he never had a purpose. So the

judgment seems very harsh: 5800 standing capacities shall be blocked for the

next home game. Before discussions, the

DFB wanted to block 13000 standing seats.

Judgments on other clubs have not been

as strict. For example in Rostock a lot of things are thrown at players of the

opposing team. Punishments? Never. Or

the attack on the supporters of Dortmund

in Hoffenheim, where a lot of them got hurt:

penal procedure? Discontinued.

This arbitrariness shows that we definitely

have to fight for a fair and democratic system

in German football. It is absolutely right that

the club does not accept this punishment. A new judgment will be debated.

The second case is the advice of Hamburg’s police that FCSP is not allowed to sell any

tickets to fans of Hansa Rostock for the game

in April. Even if I don`t really look forward to seeing these guys at the Millerntor, this is the

first time the police are trying to prohibit the

whole fans of a club to attend to a game. This can`t be accepted, because otherwise the

police here will get too powerful and this is

politically dubious. The club will take this to

court too and will even be supported by Hansa Rostock.

So, we see that here a lot of things go in the wrong direction and that the fight for a fair

dealing with critical and alternative supporter

structures and fan-friendly football goes on.

Forza Sankt Pauli! Against modern

football!

Article written by @Bucanero1910

Here’s a bit of a recommendation for those of you on twitter. User

@FCSPspotter has a great collection of St Pauli stickers spotted in

various locations. I’d recommend you go and follow and keep up to

date on the stickers post. Here’s some of our favourites:

Page 8

@FCSPspotter

Every March I come to Berlin with work.

This time I thought I would write a bit of a

travel blog with a difference. Why? Well, for

a start that nice Yorkshire airline Jet2 (I’m

imagining cabin crew serving bread and

dripping or maybe potted meat!) is

beginning flights from Leeds/ Bradford this

June, so it could become a footy short-break

destination from our neck of the woods

pretty soon.

This year I made the unfortunate mistake of

arranging my flight for exactly the same

time as the magical St Pauli's away fixture

with 1860. Staying as usual in a hostel in

the east of the city, I went into the bar on

arrival to see that they were showing a

repeat of the whole game. As I didn't know

the score it was just like being at a delayed

stream at the Well, albeit without Scott's

dodgy mullet wig obstructing your view or a

Death Metal band drowning out the Ultras'

choir. They even had Astra on tap!

I've been coming here for a few years now,

both with work and for pleasure. I've seen

all the main sights that you'll find in any

good guidebook, but I thought I'd share

with you some interesting places away from

the crowds of tourists. I spent one Sunday

with a pal once, for instance, who showed

me the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower

Park. It's an amazing sight totally off the

tourist trail but close to Treptower Park S-

Bahn station. A series of giant sculptures

tell the story of the battles for Berlin (from

the Soviet perspective) and slap bang in the

middle of the structure is a giant Soviet

hero protectively holding a German child

and crushing a swastika beneath his feet.

Bombastic it may be, but the site is also the

resting place of thousands of Soviet troops

who gave their lives during the liberation

and there is a regular police presence to

ensure that the site is respected. Also off

the beaten track (and it is literally off a

track) in the tough eastern suburb of

Lichtenberg you’ll find the so-called

"Memorial to the Socialists", where amidst

the local cemetery lie the remains of the

founders of German Socialism. Most

interesting are the memorials to Karl

Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who led the

Spartacus Revolution post WW1. Liebknecht

declared a Socialist republic from the balcony

of the imperial palace (since destroyed in

WW2, then dismantled by the communist

regime). During the short civil war that

ensued, The Social Democratic Party sent in

right-wing militia to quash the uprising,

resulting in the murder of Liebknecht and

Luxemburg. Their remains lie side by side at

the memorial, although the Soviet regime that

ruled post WW2 saw fit to allow their party’s

own leaders to join them.

For anyone interested in Rosa Luxemburg, a

stroll through the Tiergarten in West Berlin

leads you to another monument, sited at the

point where her body was thrown into the

Landwehrkanal by her murderers. It's a

strange place; a now peaceful waterway in the

heart of the city. But that's Berlin all over; a

conundrum of a city in every way.

Anyway, back to footy and all things St Pauli,

the great thing about Berlin is how fast

changing the city is. Prenzlauer Berg is still

interesting, although it has long since been

gentrified post-reunification, Kreuzberg still

has a certain alternative vibe and nearby

Friedrichshain is still a great place to go. For

St Pauli fans though, the place to head for is

the ‘Astra Stube’ in the new alternative centre,

Neukölln, which is definitely brown-white.

Alternatively, check out ‘Oberbaumeck’, a self-

styled “punkrockfootball” pub on the border of

Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, or in Prenzlauer

Berg try ‘Abseits’ for an alt football bar

showing loads of games. The place to get

official St Pauli merchandise during your visit

is ‘Fantastic’ on Oranienstrasse on Kreuzberg's

main drag.

Although it's great to occasionally work in

Germany, I generally go during the week. And,

of course, that's when those sensible Germans

are shaking off niggles from the previous

weekend or training hard for the following

weekend. Not for nothing do they call playing

twice a week an 'English week', which they

Page 9

Berlin, Berlin, wir fahren nach Berlin!

think is generally complete madness.

Thankfully, the recent bad weather threw up

that rarity - a midweek game. A

Regionalliga Nord game, no less, with

Hertha II entertaining that famous old club

from the east, 1FC Magdeburg. Due to

Magdeburg having something approaching a

following, Hertha switched the game from

their own small secondary stadium to the

Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Sportpark in

Prenzlauer Berg, a municipal venue with a

higher capacity and I suppose better means

of segregating fans.

Judging by the fact that the local Bobbies

pretty much outnumbered the travelling

Magdeburger, maybe they were expecting

trouble, with the 300+ 1FCM fans

strategically positioned as far away as

possible from the main stand. Considering

all this I stood with the Herthaner, although

I knew that this would lead to standing next

to half interested punters at a loose end

midweek. There is no doubt that allowing

second teams to compete at this level with

fallen greats creates a strange mix and

prevents other clubs’ development. The day

I have to watch Rotherham United lock

horns with, say, Stoke City Reserves will be

the day I finally lose my last modicum of

interest in the English game.

Anyway, not much to report of the game

except a 2-0 victory for Hertha's youthful

side against a 1FC Magdeburg team that

squandered 5 or 6 really good chances, yet

never looked like scoring, they were so poor.

The Magdeburg fans treated us to some songs

in the first half, although it's eerie to listen to it

in a 20,000 seater capacity stadium with just

over 900 onlookers, 600 of whom are only

vaguely interested. There wasn't a peep from

the away fans in the second half though, as it

became obvious that they were heading back to

the Elbe empty handed.

Anyhow, back to Berlin for footy tourism from

Yorkshire, I wouldn't rush to Hertha to be

honest. I don't actually think they are any

worse than your average big club; they are a

mixed bag. Obviously, there are places to

avoid, the most obvious being Dynamo or BFC

or whatever they have decided to call

themselves this week. A good choice would be

to visit 1FC Union, a proper football club with a

fan culture and for decades the antidote to

Dynamo in the east. In the west, TeBe (Tennis

Borussia), a club that has never had a big

following, has shaken off a plummet down the

leagues by trying to rebrand itself as an

alternative club. But the place to go in the

greater area is no doubt Babelsberg 03 on the

outskirts of Potsdam, who have moved up to

the 3rd Division in playing terms and definitely

to 1st Division in fan culture. A decade of fan

involvement has created a culture similar to

that at the Millerntor and the connection

between the club and our beloved FCSP grows

stronger and stronger. It would definitely be my

first choice midweek game (if that ever

happens again!). It's got to be better than

Hertha II at any rate!

Rob.

Page 10

Before his recent gig in Leeds, Attila the

Stockbroker – Performance poet, Brighton &

Hove Albion and FC St Pauli fan,spared some

of his time to answer a couple of questions

I’d wanted to ask for quite a while.

1) When did your love of St Pauli Start?

In 1989 I was at the Political Song Festival in

East Berlin. Someone said ‘Hey, Attila – you

like football, punk rock, beer and left wing

politics, you should go to Hamburg and watch

St Pauli!’

That was when things were really starting to

get going. First saw them in 1990, when the

Fanladen was still run by Sven in the old

hairdressers and the legendary anarchist

goalie Volker Ippig was between the sticks.

Still got the T shirt ‘Volker, hor die

Signale!’ Been on average I’d say once a

season for over 20 years. Got some good

mates over there. Brighton come first though,

and I do my best to bring a little bit of the St

Pauli spirit to the Albion – much easier now

we have a lovely new stadium with real ale in

all the bars and a lovely fans’ bar for me to

put punk rock gigs on in from time to time,

Piranhas, Test Tubes and Too Many Crooks so

far:) And of course I was P.A. Announcer and

DJ at Gillingham and Withdean so we certainly

had more punk rock than any other club in

the league...

2) Do you think British fans get a fair

portrayal in the main stream media? I'm

thinking of the battles fought to save

your own club Brighton, Chester,

Wimbledon, Halifax & Darlington etc.

Well, no, in the sense that, even in our

darkest hour as the battle raged to keep the

Albion alive and then to get our new ground,

most of the time we were battling to get

media coverage in the face of blanket

reporting of the Premier League. What the

‘stars’ had for breakfast was often deemed

more important than we Brighton fans exiled

at Gillingham or Withdean and fighting for the

very soul of our club. But thanks to some very

inventive media stunts (culminating, of

course, in our legendary Hit in January

2005, http://www.myspace.com/

seagullsska) we certainly hit the headlines

more than once. It has made me a bit sad

that some of the other clubs who have faced

the same sort of bastards as we had to

haven’t been able to generate the same level

Page 11

Q&A with Attila The Stockbroker

of media attention – but we have an

advantage in that there are many thousands

of us and we have some bloody clever media

orientated people down here...

3) Do you feel, like me, that in the

30yrs of protest against such things as

Racism, Sexism, Homophobia &

Rampant Capitalism, that despite what

felt like significant progress. We have

actually gone in a circle and ended up

back in 1980?

I can honestly say that in the football sense

things have moved forward hugely when it

comes to racism (witness the current Suarez

furore) and its unacceptibility on the

terraces. When I think of the things that

used to be shouted and thrown at matches

there is no doubt of that. Homophobia is

now being tackled too – though we quite like

it when people do the old ‘does your

boyfriend know you’re here’ ‘cos it gives us

the chance to shout back ‘he’s over there’ or

‘he’s behind you’ and of course – as last

Saturday - ‘2-1 to the nancy boys’ and

‘we’re gay and we’re beating you’ ...but in

society as a whole you are right, the rich

scum get richer and the poor, sick and

vulnerable are paying.....Fortunately I at

least have the opportunity to sing and shout

about it....

4) Do you REALLY want Brighton to get

into the Premiership?

Yes, as long as we take Blackpool or

Swansea as the model and simply take it in

our stride. I am sure that that is what will

happen, as well, if it comes to pass. At the

moment, after SEVENTEEN years battling to

save my club and get a new ground, I am

simply enjoying the football and the beer :)

5) And finally my wife reckons that

been this angry at 50 is bad for my

health. What does your wife think?

I think this poem. I wrote it when I was

diagnosed with high blood pressure. I now

cycle 40 miles a week....

TOO MUCH PRESSURE

This angry young man is still angry, but older

And now Father Time has just pissed on my

shoulder.

‘You’ve got to grow up, John - you’re way past

that stage

You’ve reached the condition they call ‘middle

age’.

It’s time to be quiet, say ‘yes’, watch TV -

High spot of the week, a nice dinner party.

Polite conversation until you doze off

The topics: house prices, taxation and GOFF.

(That’s golf, by the way, in case you’re

unsure. Not pale folk in graveyards discussing

The Cure)

Now just look at you in your Seventies gear

With your punk rock and football and

microbrew beer

Political poems and loud, angry songs

You still want to change things and right the

world’s wrongs?

You stand up and shout and you get in a

rage:

It’s really not right in a man of your age.

On top of all that, and I don’t mean to

frighten -

Worst of all for your blood pressure: you

support Brighton!

They’re not very good and you don’t want to

die

So sit on the couch and watch Chelsea on

Sky....

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure, I’ll take the tablets, and drink a bit less.

If you fancy a game, I might play you at

chess.

I hope that I’ll make it till I’m ninety - five.

But one thing’s for sure, Death - you’ll never

take me alive.

Page 12

After the recent closure of ‘The Well’, we are

pleased to announce our new venue, Wharf Chambers.

The address for Wharf Chambers is:

Wharf Chambers Co-operative Club

23-25 Wharf Street Leeds

LS2 7EQ

Website: www.wharfchambers.org

Having been told a couple of weeks ago that

‘The Well’ was set to close, we wanted to act quickly in order to find a suitable venue.

This needed be a venue that was accessible

for those wanting to watch streams from around Yorkshire, and also needed to match

the ethos of our group and of St Pauli.

With this in mind, Wharf Chambers in the

ideal choice in our opinion. It is situated on

the edge of the Calls in Leeds city centre, near the back of the Corn Exchange, about a

5-10 minute walk from Leeds train station.

The club is a members club and members have democratic control of the club. We

think that the ethos behind Wharf Chambers

and that of the fan culture at St Pauli will sit nicely together. They have around 1000

members currently, and are confident that

our numbers will be boosted when members

find out about us being there.

You don’t have to be a member (costs £1) to

attend our streams, you just need to be

signed in by a member. If you wish to sign up as a member, you can do so by using the

website link above. We would encourage as

many people as possible to join as members, particularly those who attend streams

regularly—so we can then sign in others who

are ‘guests’.

The club opens for business on the 16th

March and our first stream will be the 18th March against Aue, with the stream starting

from 4.30pm. Doors will open from 4pm along

with the bar, so come down early in time for the match, get your drink in and enjoy some

pre-match build-up before we start.

We can’t promise luxurious surroundings or three points unfortunately, but we do

guarantee a safe & welcoming place to enjoy

watching St Pauli.

“Wharf Chambers Co-operative Club is a

members’ club, and you need to be a member, or a guest of a member, in order to

attend. To join, please visit

www.wharfchambers.org. Membership costs £1 and requires a minimum of 48 hours to

take effect.

Page 13

New Venue - Wharf Chambers