Buccaneers of the League – The E Pauli Story
Nov.24, 2011 in
Soccer News
Every season throughout football, you see things that cause you to be take notice and can’t help yet fall in love with. Last season it turned out probably little old Fulham fighting their way to a European ultimate, or perhaps Chile‘s ‘Defending is perfect for the weak’ attitude in the World Mug.This season for me it’s been Bundesliga side Fußball Club St. Pauli.
A club in the Reeperbahn,one of Europe’s most infamous (as well as famous depending on your landscapes) red-light districts, on the port regarding Hamburg.
A club that has risen before few years, like a phoenix from your ashes of neon street lights & Reel bars, to the summit of German football this year. Just what sets them apart from other shanty town, success stories, is that they embrace it.
The club pleasure themselves on a left wing thinking process, bred through the passionate fans that drastically outshine just about any performance on the pitch. By having an unofficial club symbol of a head and cross bones, used to symbolise the clubs anti-establishment mentality, it leaves me struggling to be able to think of a team with a more fitting badge.
‘It’s emblematic: we, the poor, are contrary to the rich. Like pirates battling for the poor against the rich’ – Sven Brux, President of the St Pauli fan club.
For almost all the clubs history, that has spent its life in the shadow of its larger area rivals, Hamburg SV. Even in what many might call their greatest period of time, the 50’s, St Pauli could merely manage to finish runners approximately Hamburg five times over the space involving seven years.
The team found themselves crawling upwards and down the league ladder for the best part of two decades after that, with an ultimate low point in 1979 when the club had to seek bankruptcy relief and where in effect relegated towards the bottom tier of German football – the Overliga.
Like all issues in football, nothing is permanent and while pushing themselves support the league’s in the the mid 80’s, the club observed themselves in the middle of a gimmick that would transform them to the club they are today. At the moment, an alternative fans phenomenon determined by left wing politics and also partying found itself a home in the club of St Pauli.
This kind of transformed the clubs matches into something perhaps more fitting to a Brazilian carnival, having a strong fan majority of prostitutes, students & punks filling the balconies. At the time, the club was top quality with such nicknames as ‘Freibeuter der Liga‘ meaning ‘Bucaneers in the League’ and ‘das Freudenhaus der Liga’ which literally equals ‘Brothel of the league’ but meant ‘Fun home of the league’ as the word Frendenhaus indicates ‘house of fun’.
Perhaps more which represents for the club’s history though is that it separated St Pauli from the hooligan infested bigger clubs in the Bundesliga. What E Pauli stood for was a club that was against the fascist, hooligan violence of German and European football in general, at the time.
The club where the first in Belgium to launch anti-racist and anti-phobia campaigns, two decades before FIFA’s fair play or even ‘keep racism out of football’ equivalent and a tradition of fans along with players mingling after the sport over tea and biscuits that also stands to this day.
Over the course of the past two decades, the clubs cult standing has won the bears of millions across the world. A current report by sports marketing company UFA Sports showed that the golf club had a world wide fan base of just over 11 million enthusiasts, which was demonstrated in the club happily announcing that they made all around 8.6million Euros last time from merchandising sold around the globe.
The team have done relatively this season. At the time of writing, they may be sitting in 13th position, Your five points off relegation coming off the back of an unfortunate 3-0 conquer to Schalke04 and now three online games without a single point.
The club are unsurprisingly likely to bobble around the relegation spots for the remainder of the season as they do his or her best to stay in the league, with a manager in Holger Stanislawski who’s never managed inside the top league before, plus a squad that’s considered by the majority of to be a squad full of Bundeliga Only two players, the club use a lot of work to do.
Your club started the season striking the ground running with a 3-1 away win at SC Frieburg to then loose their next a pair of games 1-0 at home to Hoffeinheim and away to Cologne. They then picked by themselves out of the form of the last a fortnight and surprised most by holding Hamburg to a draw in the first derby of the season. Following that, the club went on an impressive streak of variety winning three in several, losing only to Dortmund but obtaining important points from lower half teams Borussia M’gladbach, Hannover, and Nurnberg. However the teams luck went out the week after at Stuttgart wherever they lost 2-0 and ongoing the pattern in the pursuing two games with a lacklustre home performance to Frankfurt losing 3-1 and then of course, Fridays defeat to Schalke.
They’re however showing positive symptoms, with one of the best away defensive documents in the league and a passionate home support is showing Saint Pauli as hard opponents to break down. You can of course look at the table as well as argue that it looks a little harsh on them. Of the 17 points they’ve slipped this season, 11 of them where against top league facets and out of a possible Eighteen points against bottom 50 % sides, they’ve managed to pick up an amazing 12.
The next opponents for your Buccaneers are in-form Leverkusen at home next Saturday, the particular Bucaneers, at their Wilhem-Koch stadium which usually should prove to be an interesting contest in one of the leagues most vibrant venues.
My spouse and i don’t know about you, but I’ll be resting with my Skull & cross bones flag, waiving on the coolest team in the world.
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