FC St. Pauli

FC St. Pauli
Full name Fußball-Club St. Pauli von 1910 e.V.
Nickname(s) Die Freibeuter der Liga (engl.: The Buccaneers of the League)
Founded 15th May 1910
Ground Millerntor-Stadion
(Capacity: 24,487)
President Stefan Orth
Head coach André Schubert
League 2. Bundesliga
2010–11 Bundesliga, 18th (relegated)
Website Club home page
Home colours
Away colours
Current season

Fußball-Club St. Pauli is a German sports club based in the St. Pauli quarter of Hamburg. The football section is part of a larger club that also has Rugby (FC St. Pauli Rugby), American football, baseball, bowling, boxing, chess, cycling, handball, skittles, softball and table tennis teams.

In 2003/04 they dropped down to the Regionalliga, at that time the third football division in Germany and remained there for four years. In 2007, St. Pauli were promoted back to the 2. Fußball-Bundesliga and in 2010, FC St. Pauli was promoted into the Bundesliga.

While the footballers have enjoyed only modest success on the field, the club is widely recognised for its unique culture and has a large popular following as one of the country's "Kult" clubs.[1][2]

Contents

History

Early years

The club began its existence in 1899 as a loose, informal group of football enthusiasts within the Hamburg-St.Pauli Turn-Verein 1862. This group did not play its first match until 1907, when they faced a similar side assembled from the local Aegir swimming club. Officially established on 15 May 1910, the club played as St. Pauli TV in the Kreisliga Groß-Hamburg (Alsterkreis) until 1924, when a separate football side called St. Pauli was formed. The team played as an undistinguished lower-to-mid table side until making their first appearance in 1934 in the top-flight Gauliga Nordmark, one of sixteen premier level divisions created in the re-organization of German football that took place under the Third Reich. They were immediately relegated, but returned to the top flight in 1936. Relegated again in 1940, St. Pauli re-appeared in the Gauliga Hamburg in 1942, and played there until the end of World War II.

Post-war football

After the war, the club resumed play in the Oberliga Nord in 1947. A second-place finish in the 1947–48 season led St. Pauli to its first appearance in the national championship rounds. They advanced as far as the semi-finals, where they were knocked out 2–3 by eventual champions 1. FC Nuremberg. The club continued to play well throughout the early 1950s, but were unable to overtake rivals Hamburger SV, finishing in second place in five of the next seven seasons, and going out in the early rounds in each of their championship-round appearances from 1949 to 1951. In the late fifties and into the early 1960s, St. Pauli were overtaken by rivals such as Werder Bremen and VfL Osnabrück, but finished fourth a number of times.

Promotion to the Bundesliga

In 1963 the Bundesliga, West Germany's new top-flight professional league, was formed. Hamburg, Werder Bremen, and Eintracht Braunschweig joined the new circuit as the top-finishers from the Oberliga Nord, while St. Pauli found themselves in the second-tier Regionalliga Nord.

Nearly a decade and a half of frustration followed. St. Pauli won their division in 1964, but finished bottom of their group in the promotion play-off round. They took their next Regionalliga Nord title in 1966 and, while they performed far better in the play-offs, still failed to advance to the top-flight, losing out to Rot-Weiss Essen on goal difference, having conceded two more goals. Division championships in 1972 and 1973, and runner-up finishes in 1971 and 1974, were each followed by promotion-round play-off disappointment.

The success of the Bundesliga, and the growth of professional football in West Germany, led to the formation of the 2. Bundesliga in 1974. St. Pauli was part of the new second-tier professional circuit in the 2. Bundesliga Nord and in 1977, they finally advanced to the top flight as winners of their division. The team survived just one season at the highest level in the Bundesliga.

The club's return to the 2. Bundesliga Nord was also short-lived. On the verge on bankruptcy in 1979, they were denied a license for the following season and were sent down to the Oberliga Nord (III). Strong performances that set the team atop that division in 1981 and 1983 were marred by poor financial health. By 1984, the club had recovered sufficiently to return to the 2. Bundesliga, overtaking Werder Bremen's amateur side who, despite finishing two points ahead of St. Pauli, were ineligible for promotion.

"Kult" phenomenon

It was in the mid-1980s that St. Pauli's transition from a traditional club into a "Kult" club began. The club was also able to turn the location of its ground in the dock area part of town, near Hamburg's famous Reeperbahn — centre of the city's night life and its red-light district — to its advantage. An alternative fan scene emerged, built around left-leaning politics and the "event" and party atmosphere of the club's matches. Supporters adopted the skull and crossbones as their own unofficial emblem. St. Pauli became the first team in Germany to officially ban right-wing nationalist activities and displays in its stadium in an era when fascist-inspired football hooliganism threatened the game across Europe. In 1981, the team was averaging crowds of only 1,600 spectators: by the late 1990s they were frequently selling out their entire 20,000-capacity ground.

It was also during the 1980s when the club first became associated with the Skull and Crossbones symbol. The symbol had always been associated with St Pauli in one way or another. Hamburg fostered the most famous pirate of Germany Klaus Störtebeker and the symbol had been used by the house occupants at Hafenstrasse, but the one who should be credited with bringing the symbol to the club is probably Doc Mabuse, the singer of a Hamburg punk band, and as the legend tells, he first grabbed the flag from a stall while passing drunk through the Dom on his way to the Millerntor-Stadion.[3]

In the early 1990s, the media in Germany started to work on the Kult-image of the club, focusing on the punk part of the fan-base in TV broadcasts of the matches. By this time, the media also started to establish nicknames like "Freibeuter der Liga" (buccaneers of the league) as well as das Freudenhaus der Liga ("Brothel of the League" but Freudenhaus also literally means "House of Fun").

St. Pauli moved in and out of the Bundesliga over the course of the next dozen years: The club were narrowly relegated to the Oberliga in the 1984–85 season, but won the 1985–86 championship and returned to 2. Bundesliga. Two increasingly strong years followed, resulting in promotion and three seasons in 1. Bundesliga, during 1988–91. Four seasons followed in 2. Bundesliga, and then another two in 1. Bundesliga 1995–97, before returning to 2. Bundesliga.

Into the new millennium

Until last season, their most recent appearance in the top flight had been a single-season cameo in 2001–02. A win against FC Bayern Munich, the reigning World Club Cup winners, led to the popular Weltpokalsiegerbesieger (World Club Champion beaters) shirts. However, the team finished last in the league, partly because the management did not trust the team which surprisingly won the promotion in 2001, but rather spent the additional money from Bundesliga TV contracts and advertisements on expensive but disappointing players. After the relegation to the 2. Bundesliga, only a skeleton of the successful 2001 team remained; the season 2002–03 ended up in chaos, with the team fighting relegation (ultimately in vain) from the very beginning, various coaches departing and other problems internal to the club.

With the club almost bankrupt again and the less-lucrative Regionaliga Nord (III) looming, the club began its fund-raising activities, the so-called Retteraktion. They printed t-shirts with the club's crest surrounded by the word Retter (rescuer/saviour) and more than 140,000 were sold within six weeks. They also organized a benefit game, against Bayern Munich, to try to help rescue the club.

The club has also been active in terms of charity and in 2005 the club, the team and the fans initiated the Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli campaign, which collects money for water-dispensers for schools in Cuba, for clean water in Rwanda et cetera.

During the 2005–06 season, the team enjoyed unprecedented success in the DFB Cup, with wins over Burghausen, Bochum and, significantly, Bundegsliga sides Hertha Berlin and, in the quarter-finals on 25 January 2006, Werder Bremen. Their 3–1 victory in front of a sell-out Millerntor crowd, and their subsequent place in the DFB Cup semi-final, netted the club approximately €1 million in TV and sponsorship money, going a long way to saving the club from immediate financial ruin.

St. Pauli finally went out of the cup to Bayern Munich on 12 April, going down 3–0 with a goal from Owen Hargreaves and two from Claudio Pizarro. Coincidentally Bayern Munich were also St. Pauli's opponents and dispatchers, in the first round of the following season's cup.

After success in the 2006–07 season, the team was promoted to the 2. Bundesliga.

After defeating Greuther Fürth in the 2009–10 season the team secured promotion back to the 1. Bundesliga for the 2010–11 season.

On 16 February 2011 in the 2010–11 season, for the first time since 1977, St Pauli defeated their bitter cross city rivals Hamburger SV away at the Volksparkstadion courtesy of a Gerald Asamoah goal. However, the team finished the season last in the league going back to the 2. Bundesliga.

Recent seasons

Year Division Position
1999-00 2. Bundesliga (II) 13th
2000–01 2. Bundesliga 3rd (promoted)
2001–02 1. Bundesliga (I) 18th (relegated)
2002–03 2. Bundesliga (II) 17th (relegated)
2003–04 Regionalliga Nord (III) 8th
2004–05 Regionalliga Nord 7th
2005–06 Regionalliga Nord 6th
2006–07 Regionalliga Nord 1st (promoted)
2007–08 2. Bundesliga (II) 9th
2008–09 2. Bundesliga 8th
2009–10 2. Bundesliga 2nd (promoted)
2010–11 1. Bundesliga 18th (relegated)

Supporters

St. Pauli enjoys a certain fame for the left-leaning character of its supporters: most of the team's fans regard themselves as anti-racist, anti-fascist, anti-homophobic and anti-sexist, and this has on occasion brought them into conflict with neo-Nazis and hooligans at away games. The organisation has adopted an outspoken stance against racism, fascism, sexism, and homophobia and has embodied this position in its constitution. Team supporters traditionally participate in demonstrations in the Hamburg district of St. Pauli, including those over squatting or low-income housing, such as the Hafenstraße and Bambule. The centre of fan activity is the Fanladen St. Pauli.

The club prides itself on having the largest number of female fans in all of German football.[4] In 2002, advertisements for the men's magazine Maxim were removed from the team's stadium, in response to fans' protests over the adverts' allegedly sexist depictions of women.

St. Pauli is also a worldwide symbol for punk and related subcultures.[5] The Totenkopf logo and the team's brown and white football jerseys have often been worn by international artists such as the bands Asian Dub Foundation, Gaslight Anthem and Panteon Rococo. Turbonegro recorded a special version of their song "I Got Erection" with re-worked German lyrics for St. Pauli. Bad Religion played a charity match against St. Pauli's third team in 2000.[6] KMFDM frontman and Hamburg native Sascha Konietzko is a recognisable St. Pauli fan, even at one point placing a huge picture of a fist smashing a swastika on his band's main page, with the caption St. Pauli Fans gegen Rechts! (St. Pauli fans against the right-wing) underneath it. One of the most notable supporters and sponsors is Andrew Eldritch, lead singer of band The Sisters of Mercy. On his 2006 'Sisters Bite The Silver Bullet' tour, Eldritch wore the famous Totenkopf shirt. Other German musicians are fans: Fettes Brot, Die Ärzte singer/drummer/songwriter Bela B., Kettcar, Tomte and many other bands, most of them underground. Georg Holm, bassist of the Icelandic post rock band Sigur Rós, performed at several festivals wearing a Sankt Pauli shirt. Alex Rosamilia, guitarist for The Gaslight Anthem frequently wears a St. Pauli hat. Editors guitarist and synthesiser player Chris Urbanowicz frequently wears the skull and crossbones t-shirt. Dave Doughman, singer for Dayton, Ohio's Swearing At Motorists, who has been spotted in concert with the Totenkopf on his guitar and amplifier, moved to St. Pauli in 2010.

When the team played in Germany's second football division, their home fixtures at the Millerntor used to average greater attendances than any other team in that division, and often exceeded turnouts for second division teams. St. Pauli have more holders of season tickets than many Bundesliga teams. One study recently estimated that the team has roughly 11 million fans throughout Germany,[7] making the club one of the most widely recognised German sides. The number of official fan clubs passed 500 in year 2011 which is an increase of 300 over just three years.[8]

Club culture

St. Pauli opens its home matches with "Hells Bells" by AC/DC, and after every home goal "Song 2" by Blur is played.[4]

The former club president Corny Littmann, long active in German theatre and head of the Schmidt Theater on the Reeperbahn, is openly gay.[9][10]

St. Pauli have made pre-season appearances at Wacken Open Air, a heavy metal festival, several times.

The club hosted the 2006 FIFI Wild Cup, a tournament made up of unrecognised national football teams like Greenland, Tibet and Zanzibar. They participated as the "Republic of St. Pauli".[11]

The British band Art Brut have a song about the club called "St Pauli", which is featured on their album It's A Bit Complicated.[12]

In 2008, Nike commemorated the club with two exclusive Dunk shoes, both released in limited quantities. The High Dunk (featuring a black colorway, and the skull and crossbones symbol) was released to all countries throughout Europe, with only 500 pairs produced. The Low Dunk (featuring a smooth white colorway, and holding the team's logo impregnated in the side panel leather) was released only to shops in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, with only 150 pairs produced.[13]

In 2009, Italian Ska Combat-Folk Punk band Talco from Marghera, Venice wrote the song "St Pauli". The team has since used the song as an anthem and Talco has played a number of concerts at Millerntor-Stadion.

In 2010 the FC St. Pauli was one hundred years old. To the jubilee the Fan club 18auf12 had recorded a song: Happy Birthday St.Pauli One Hundred Beers for You (Words and music by Henning Knorr & Christoph Brüx).[14]

St Pauli fans currently have a strong relationship with Celtic F.C fans.

In the clubs set of Fundamental Principles (Leitlinien), passed by an owerwhelming majority at the St Pauli Congress in 2009, it is written that "St. Pauli FC is the club of a particular city district, and it is to this that it owes its identity" and that "tolerance and respect in mutual human relations are important pillars of the St. Pauli philosophy".[15]

Stadium

The club's home is the Millerntor-Stadion. Work on the stadium began in 1961, but its completion was delayed as there was initially no drainage system in place, making the pitch unplayable when it rained. It originally held 32,000 supporters, but this has been reduced in recent years for safety reasons.

In 1970, the stadium was renamed the Wilhelm Koch stadium, in honour of a former club president, but this was controversial when it was discovered he had been a member of the Nazi Party during the war, so the name was changed back to Millerntor in 1999.

Currently, a reconstruction effort has begun. The goal, a total renovation of the stadium (expanded seating, new amenities, etc.), is expected to be completed in 2014 (capacity: 30,000) and cost around 30 million euros.

The Stadium is located next to the Heiligengeistfeld, and is overlooked by the infamous Flak tower. It can easily be reached with the Hamburg U-Bahn line U3 (St Pauli Station and Feldstrasse Station).

Players

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 GK Benedikt Pliquett
2 DF Moritz Volz
3 DF Lasse Sobiech
4 DF Fabio Morena
5 DF Carlos Zambrano
6 MF Patrick Funk
7 FW Rouwen Hennings
8 MF Florian Bruns
9 FW Marius Ebbers
10 MF Charles Takyi
11 DF Ralph Gunesch
13 GK Philipp Tschauner
14 FW Petar Slišković
16 DF Markus Thorandt
17 MF Fabian Boll
No. Position Player
18 MF Max Kruse
19 FW Mahir Saglik
20 DF Sebastian Schachten
22 FW Fin Bartels
23 FW Deniz Naki
24 DF Carsten Rothenbach
25 MF Kevin Schindler
27 DF Jan-Philipp Kalla
30 MF Dennis Daube
31 MF Deniz Herber
32 DF Davidson Drobo-Ampem
33 GK Ole Springer
34 GK Arvid Schenk
35 MF Petar Filipović

Notable players

International players

The following international players have also played for St. Pauli:

Greatest ever team

In 2010, as part of the club's celebration of its 100th anniversary, fans voted the following players as the best in the club's history:[17]

Coaching staff

Position Name
Head coach André Schubert
Assistant coach Thomas Meggle
Assistant coach Jan-Moritz Lichte
Assistant coach Klaus-Peter Nemet
Goalkeeping coach Mathias Hain
Fitness coach Dr Pedro Gonzalez

Head coach history

Other sports

The St. Pauli rugby section has several teams, both in the men's and women's leagues.

The men's rugby department has not been as successful as its female counterpart, reaching the German final only once, in 1964. In 2008–09, St. Pauli was the only club to have a team in both the rugby and football 2nd Bundesliga. In 2008–09, the men's team finished fourth in the second division.

The women's team have won the German rugby union championship 8 times (1995, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005–8) and the sevens championship 3 times (2000, 2001 and 2002). Several of their players play in the national squad.

Notable presidents

References

  1. ^ "Midfield Dynamo Football Site". Midfielddynamo.com. http://www.midfielddynamo.com/clubs/profiles/stpauli.htm. Retrieved 4 May 2010. 
  2. ^ "Offizielle Homepage des FC St. Pauli von 1910 e. V. – Mannschaft". FC St Pauli. http://www.fcstpauli.com/staticsite/staticsite.php?menuid=496&topmenu=113&keepmenu=inactive&keepmenu=inactive. Retrieved 4 May 2010. 
  3. ^ Hesse, Ulrich (2010), Bakom Helvetets Portar, Offside, Number 6, Offside Press AB, p 110-111.
  4. ^ a b Parker, Dean (14 September 2010). "Bohemains mixing it with big boys". New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 4 March 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/5wvWe5hAG. Retrieved 4 March 2011. 
  5. ^ "Punk rock football". BBC Birmingham. 20 November 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/features/2004/11/st_pauli/st_pauli.shtml. Retrieved 4 May 2010. 
  6. ^ "Soccer entry in The Answer hosted at The Bad Religion Page". The Bad Religion Page. http://www.thebrpage.net/theanswer/?article=soccer. Retrieved 9 October 2010. 
  7. ^ "New sponsorship deal for St. Pauli (German)". Heise.de. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Mobilcom-sponsert-FC-St-Pauli-83059.html. Retrieved 4 May 2010. 
  8. ^ http://www.fcstpauli.com/magazin/artikel.php?artikel=9631&menuid=1
  9. ^ "Gay footballers still frowned at in Germany". Yahoo! Sports. 30 April 2010. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. http://web.archive.org/web/20080119183905/http%3A//in.sports.yahoo.com/060630/43/65i69.html. Retrieved 4 May 2010. 
  10. ^ Gay footballers still frowned at in Germany Nerve – News and Analysis of India, 30 June 2006
  11. ^ Leonidou, John (4 June 2006). "Turkish Cypriot football team in FIFI Wild Cup". Cyprus Mail. http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/turkish-cypriot-football-team-fifi-wild-cup. Retrieved 1 October 2010. 
  12. ^ [The Fly (magazine) "The Reeperbahn Festival Preview"]. The Fly. The Fly (magazine). Retrieved 1 October 2010. 
  13. ^ "St. Pauli x Nike Dunk Pack | Football Fashion". Football Shirt Culture.com. 18 March 2008. http://www.footballshirtculture.com/football-fashion/st-pauli-x-nike-dunk-pack.html. Retrieved 4 May 2010. 
  14. ^ One Hundred Beers website of the fan club 18auf12 14.11.2010
  15. ^ http://www.fcstpauli.com/staticsite/staticsite.php?menuid=2489&topmenu=1013
  16. ^ Jankowski/Pistorius/Prüß, Fußball im Norden (Barsinghausen 2005), p. 100
  17. ^ http://www.fcstpauli.com/magazin/artikel.php?artikel=6249&type=&menuid=57&topmenu=112

External links