Appropriately enough, the resurrection begins on the world’s largest standing room grandstand. The premier class can be followed standing up again.
Starting point of the initiative for standing room in the Champions League: the south curve of Dortmund.
imago images / Thomas Bielefeld
When Borussia Dortmund welcomes FC Copenhagen on Tuesday, the yellow wall can finally watch a Champions League game in all its glory – and the players in the premier class can finally play in front of a completely full stadium again.
Because this is where the long process to get there also began, also on a Tuesday. “Europe wants to stand” read a banner on the evening of March 5, 2019, which drew attention to UEFA’s ban on standing room for the first time during the Champions League game between Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham Hotspur.
Fans of Bayern, Dortmund and Frankfurt as initiators
The UEFA officials should be put under pressure, according to the plan of the initiators. Gregor Weinreich from the FC Bayern fan scene, Jan-Henrik Gruszecki, then Ultra and now head of the Strategy and Culture department at BVB, Martin Endemann (Football Supporters Europe) and Henning Schwarz from the Eintracht Frankfurt fan and funding department were instrumental in this that standing room can now be used again throughout Europe in a one-year trial phase for the new season, where there are still any available.
In 1998, UEFA introduced the regulation for European cup and international matches, following the example of British football. There, standing room was banned in all stadiums after the Hillsborough disaster in April 1989. The fact that they have now been approved again is “a great success for all fans”, says Weinreich, “but especially for those who have been committed for many years and sacrifice their free time to stand up for better framework conditions and a lively fan culture”. Unfortunately, it also shows “how tedious and time-consuming the dialogue with the associations is”.
The 25,000 on the south already make a different impression standing up.
BVB Managing Director Hans-Joachim Watzke is pleased with the result: “The big aspect is that it’s more atmospheric, that it brings you up again and playing for us with 81,365 is extra cool. That’s the decisive factor really big step forward, because the 25,000 people on the south make a different impression standing up.”
Special issue on the Champions League
Because the standing room is also a symbol, says Weinreich: “Of the five major football nations in Europe, Germany is by far the country with the liveliest fan culture and is envied by many other countries in Europe. This is no coincidence, but a direct consequence of it that the German fans have managed to keep their standing room blocks at least in the national competitions over the last two decades.”
In the Champions League special ( in stores from Thursday or immediately as an eMagazine)
