Exactly 98 clubs perform in the "five leagues" - English, Spanish, German, Italian and French. So many more teams compete in the championships of the so-called second European category, which includes the Dutch, Portuguese, Russian and several other championships...
Among them, it is hard to find a more unusual club than Union Berlin - the new German first league, which will play in the Bundesliga for the first time in its history next season. He earned that right two days ago, when almost 20 fans in red shirts flooded the field of the stadium "An der Alten Forsterei" (in translation - House of the Old Forester), after the barrage victory over Stuttgart.
For 16 years, the team's fans from the former eastern part of the famous city have had the ritual of gathering at the stadium for Christmas - and for exactly 90 minutes, which is the duration of the match, they hold lit candles, drink wine and sing Christmas carols. At the first such event, in 2003, there were 89, and less than six months ago, in 2018, as many as 28 thousand. A nice tradition that other German clubs have started to copy...
113 years is the long history of this, as many call it, punk-football, or Berlin neighborhood club, and during all that time, the famous Union was much more important off the field than on it. The fact that he has never played in the elite until now speaks best of that.
During the bloc division of Germany, Union Berlin operated "behind the iron curtain", in the eastern part of the city - and for all that, the communist era, it was in the great shadow of the city's rival, one of the most powerful clubs of the former GDR, Dinamo Berlin.
As Dinamo was under the patronage of the pro-Soviet secret police, the famous Stasi, supporters of a liberal worldview gathered around Union Berlin.
Even with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Union retained the status of an alternative, oppositional club, with a core of sympathizers who were free-thinking and progressive.
It didn't bother them either that the club didn't have much success, that it was struggling in the lower German divisions. After unification, in 1990, he even found himself in the lowest rank, the Oberliga! It was only in 2001 that Union Berlin reached the Second League, the popular Zvejta, of which he was a permanent member since 2009.
Meanwhile, the fans saved the club from going out of business by giving blood for it in 2004 - literally. In the "Let's bleed for Union" action, almost 20 fans donated blood, for which money is received in Germany. In the meantime, the majority owner of the club became "one of them", Dirk Cingler, a businessman, but also a man from the stands, a big fan of Union.
His statement is also remembered:
"The club has sold its soul - to the fans".
Union sympathizers still run the club today, by opposing all principles of modern football. They oppose its commercialization, there are very few advertisements around the pitch, no lighting effects, and no traditional German performances during halftime.
There are not even chairs in the stadium, which holds 22 fans - all four stands are designed for standing!
That is why it is interesting to see how the club will adapt to modern trends, which is somewhat inevitable after entering the Bundesliga.
When the transition to the elite rank of German football became more and more certain, the fans hung a banner that read - "Too bad, let's go up".
Some even openly opposed the idea of moving to the Bundesliga.
- I don't want that, because I am convinced that the club would then, little by little, give up the values that our members represent - said last year the club's head of public relations and former official announcer at the stadium, Kristijan Arbejt.
Union Berlin, however, did not resist the challenge.
Bonus video:
