Bundesliga

[CB_NO3]

I am currently watching a short documentary on ESPN about the Bundesliga and how fantastic it is. Its a good programme with some interesting facts. They have the greatest stadiums in the world, and they have more fans going to games than any country in the world. 1/3 of the fans are woman. Thats a statistic I found hard to believe. 12 out of 18 teams sold out their annual season tickets for the season ahead. Your season ticket allows you free travel on match day. Prices are pretty cheap, most stadiums have safe standing behind the goals. You can get a beer in and around the stadium. The atmosphere is excellent in all stadiums. Its very well policed, with the police not getting in your face like the bright sparks that are Lothian and Borders and Strathclyde. They have had 4 different champions in the last 5 years. All fans mix, before, during and after the game besides the 500 an odd ultras who get segragated with protective nets. All teams in the top 2 leagues have their own training academy. This is benefiting the national team, who have their youngest national side ever.

This is the best bit of the league though. Teams are not allowed to spend aymore than their annual income on the playing side of their club e.g. Wages and transfer fees. When the Uefa fairplay rule kicks into place, it will become the number 1 league in the world as they are 10 years ahead of Spain and England when it comes to sorting out their finances.

After watching this, surely the muppets in the SPL can take some notes to take Scottish football out the dark ages. Everything in German football is for the fans. Its a great product. I know Germany is 10x bigger than Scotland but surely we could at least make football a day out to enjoy.

[KWJ]

I am currently watching a short documentary on ESPN about the Bundesliga and how fantastic it is. Its a good programme with some interesting facts. They have the greatest stadiums in the world, and they have more fans going to games than any country in the world. 1/3 of the fans are woman. Thats a statistic I found hard to believe. 12 out of 18 teams sold out their annual season tickets for the season ahead. Your season ticket allows you free travel on match day. Prices are pretty cheap, most stadiums have safe standing behind the goals. You can get a beer in and around the stadium. The atmosphere is excellent in all stadiums. Its very well policed, with the police not getting in your face like the bright sparks that are Lothian and Borders and Strathclyde. They have had 4 different champions in the last 5 years. All fans mix, before, during and after the game besides the 500 an odd ultras who get segragated with protective nets. All teams in the top 2 leagues have their own training academy. This is benefiting the national team, who have their youngest national side ever.

This is the best bit of the league though. Teams are not allowed to spend aymore than their annual income on the playing side of their club e.g. Wages and transfer fees. When the Uefa fairplay rule kicks into place, it will become the number 1 league in the world as they are 10 years ahead of Spain and England when it comes to sorting out their finances.

After watching this, surely the muppets in the SPL can take some notes to take Scottish football out the dark ages. Everything in German football is for the fans. Its a great product. I know Germany is 10x bigger than Scotland but surely we could at least make football a day out to enjoy.

Does it not also have the highest average goals per game in Europe or something like that. Top league.

Soft spots for Borussia Dortmund, Hertha Berlin, Dusseldorf & Zwickau.

The free travel on match day thing is brilliant.

[Woody1985]

Not trying to be cynical, well maybe, but if espn is the only channel that shows it they're not going to say it's *****.

[DC_Hibs]

The free travel varies for each club. Some tickets cover the entire region meaning a c50min journey from Duesseldorf to Dortmund for example costs nowt while some are for the actual city only.

Have stated many times that the cheaper standing tickets (€12€-€18) are limited and nearly impossilbe to get at some clubs and amount of standing places varies massively also. The seat prices are often tiered and Schalke worked out at €33, 44 and 55 this season - have paid over €40 a few times this season for away games.

Mixing of fans in the stadium is not my cup of tea, - sitting next to Bayern or Dortmund fans who snap up home end tickets in their thousands - although sensibly they will generally only be in the vicinity of the away end.

The rules on finances and ownership are a good thing although it has probably stopped German clubs from regularly competing with EPL and La Liga in Europe really....although Schalke did end up in a financial mess of late. I notice Hertz are still well over 100% wages to turnover which is a disgrace really.

As for stadiums, I was reading yesterday that two smaller clubs from the east will be getting €50m between them for new/redeveloped stadiums. This includes big contributions from the cities. Mainz are building a brand new 32k stadium (huge standing section behind one goal) and there have been a good few other new ones opened in last few years. well worth googling to see the likes of Mainz coface arena, dresden stadion, aachen tivoli stadion - to see the set up of these relatively smaller teams.

As for safe standing, went to mainz on saturday and crush at the entrance was pretty bad, 2-3 metre wide gate for 2000 fans with two lines. then in the standing section was a *****e view and was stood on a full stairwell with no chance of moving anywhere - that was not a good advert if anyone was over checking standing sections out. part of the reason they are building a new one probably.

[Phil MaGlass]

German fitba is great, organised from the bottom to the top, facilities are amazing, went to Schalke stadium last year, fantastic, training pitches, fan shop, mobile bars around the ground, stadium itself is awesome inside, great atmosphere.
The Hague in Holland has also for the past few years had free transport to the stadium, you only have to show your match ticket to the driver/controllers. Not bad if a match ticket is only costing from 18€. voorsprung durch technik

[Phil MaGlass]

Not trying to be cynical, well maybe, but if espn is the only channel that shows it they're not going to say it's *****.

Its definitely not *****, if you get the chance, get yirsel to one of the games.

[Barney McGrew]

It does a hell of a lot that we could mirror, but it's also worth remembering that they have nearly £600m a year in TV revenues coming in which no doubt helps things :greengrin

[R'Albin]

Best league in the world imo, sky should show more games, I'd rather watch that than Spanish football:agree:

[ScottB]

Problem here is as much cultural as anything else, would anyone want to go to a game sitting amongst Hearts, Celtic or Rangers fans with free flowing drink?

Would turn into a war zone!

[Franck is God]

German football was dying a death with one or two giants in the game just like Scottish football until they were awarded the World Cup. It gave everyone involved in footie over there a massive boost and everyone was interested again.

They built the brand new stadiums, priced the games sensibly and changed the nature of their game to attack and score lots of goals. The fans did come flocking back but it took a wee while and a lot of support from their football association and government.

IMO Scottish football could have had the exact same boost by hosting the 2008 Euro Championships but our government refused to back it fully and our FA came up with some pathetic sharing with Ireland plan that was always doomed to failure.

[CB_NO3]

Not trying to be cynical, well maybe, but if espn is the only channel that shows it they're not going to say it's *****.
It has the second biggest world wide audience in TV viewings, with the Premiership being number one. The revenue is increasing year after year. Also apparently TV viewing figures in Spain are dropping big time due to it being a two horse race. People only want to watch Barcelona and Real Madrid now.

[Speedway]

If Hibs were in the Bundesliga, our manager would still be clueless, our board inept and ambitionless, our team gutless, the league quality less and biased and our fans would still be ****less.

It would be portrayed as the worst league ever once we knew we had yet another midweek away trip to Dortmund.

.Net (Bundesliga Style)

Nobbendd

Jimmy Schott ist fuchen shocken und Vazul Team canst getunf die fuchen alst

Nobbrasch
Ya

Nobbjockeij
Ya :taxi