Always look on the bright side of life:
After almost 10 years of writing this blog, Im packing it in. Gradually other commitments (mostly not being able to write long match reports at work), increasing disenfranchisement with the internet, have started to have a bit of an influence, usually the reports coming later and later. A few other factors have played a role too.
Everything is accessible now
When I started following FC Sankt Pauli, the internet existed but, it is easy to forget how much less of it there was. It never occurred to me to try and join a forum. There was no twitter or youtube. Information was gleaned from the main club website, the Karoviertel group website was regularly visited despite the lack of updates. Everything was in German and had to be pieced together with the new arrival of free online translation sites. Later the Birmingham Boys in Brown website appeared where a few more reports could be read in English. Things have changed now. Regular, often daily, updates are available in multiple languages nowadays. In other words it has become easier. I, personally, enjoyed that initial struggle. I feel I actually learnt a bit of German as a result. Obviously though for most people the developments will be advantageous. For all my talk of back in the day, there are no doubt foreign fans older than myself who can remember visits prior to the ease of Ryanair flights via Lübeck or back when there was no club website at all. What is however clear, is that there are now a number of excellent sources for match reports, pictures and the like, far beyond what this blog can offer. The same goes for FC. If you use facebook, you can do a lot worse than to follow “FC Tifo”.
Serenity
Things have become a lot calmer. That doesn’t just extend to myself (where the others joke I will land on the Hauptribune with a blanket and a themos soon enough), but the club and football in general. Promotion to the Bundesliga, the few years of derbies and (whisper it) more trouble back then between fans. Meanwhile the feeling that the club was slipping out of our fingers both chaotically and also in terms of what the club means and should represent. How things have changed. Rival Category B & C fans are kept more separate than ever before, more cameras, more police, more robust stadiums. With the exception of Hannover, there are few games in recent times where things felt uncomfortable or have properly “gone off”. Meanwhile, stick your scarf in your pocket and you can have a pleasant day out in wherever the team is playing away, and let’s face it, the fourth visit to Bielefeld demands making more out of the day than a mere 90 minutes. Either way though it doesn’t necessarily make for more interesting reports, however much the reduction in trouble (and lack of irritating escalation in the media as a result) is welcome.
The club as a whole has also made important changes in recent years. No video screens to transmit text message based greetings, less lazy cash-ins, more statements and activities from the club that seem aligned with regular fans viewpoints, a larger but on the most part suitably developed ground in the heart of the neighbourhood. There was a time, where what was left of what I identified with at St Pauli could rarely be found anywhere outside the Sudkurve and pockets of the Gegengerade. It’s a welcome change that nowadays there is rarely cause for concern and even the most unlikely sponsors (my health insurance provider) are forced to combine their sponsorship with some form of social engagement however minor. Where there is smooth sailing though, there is once again, less requirement for 5 page essays on how the club losing it’s soul.
The same goes for FC United. The big away extravaganzas where we’d do 8 hour trips to Suffolk or the North East are long gone. Kids, other commitments, less football, more Man Utd, have all reduced the number of my mates who are up for an away trip. FC still prevails, but generally it’s one or two of us nipping up to Broadhurst Park before joining the others in the pub later. It’s a different day out. The club has also stabilized after a few genuinely painful years of infighting, dropping crowds, losing track of our ethos. In the last 6 months, even from afar, a strengthening on the terrace and in the running of the club can easily be identified. Meanwhile the younger generation have made their mark. Running buses, doing banners, stickering around town and generally having a good time, all with significantly less “look at me” attitude than much of post-internet “ultraing” in the UK. After some bedding in, they’ve found their own way and much to my pleasure, have also formed their own links between FC and Sankt Pauli.
In Hamburg sagt man Tschüß!
So here are the last few photos from matches (FCSP 2 v 2 SSV Jahn Regensburg, FCSP Amateure 5 v 1 Altona 93, DSC Arminia Bielefeld 5 v 0 FCSP, FCSP 2 v 1 VFL Bochum) over the last month. Thanks to everyone who ever bothered to read this blog. Keep enjoying your football. FCUM OK/Voran FC Sankt Pauli!