Hamburg Football Stadium Journey Day 1

Is there any other city in the world that can beat Hamburg for a football ground visiting 3 day marathon? Some may say who would be mad enough to spend 3 days jumping from bus to metro to U Bahn to running/limping from ground to ground. Well I was that mad football fan and do think there may be no other city to rival Hamburg – Berlin, Budapest and London may be the only real rivals.

With no national German Football league till the 60’s it has meant that many States, regions and cities have a great number of clubs and grounds.

The German league system is a true pyramid and does mean that the lowest park team can eventually end up as champions of Germany just on football terms with every league having promotion and relegation – of course as you go further up the pyramid there are some set standards for facilities and financial capabilities.

In Hamburg there are 25 divisions consisting of 418 teams with 5 further teams from the city playing in leagues above that including Hamburg SV and St Pauli.

I landed at 10.10am and 40 minutes later I was at my first game. I would see 3 games over the 3 days but also would visit 18 other grounds – more than I had planned for or expected.

Some grounds have a shale surface others astro but that means many games can be played on the same day, great for the younger teams that many clubs run – compare that to say, Essex – muddy, waterlogged pitches ,meaning that not even the first team can play a game for many weeks. We need more G4 pitches here in the UK, now back to my Hamburg football odyssey

The next few posts will cover those three days.

DAY 1

Ground 1

Game at USC Paloma here

Ground 2

Borgweg Stadium – VFL Hamburg

Great ground near the City Park

Ground 3

Game at HSV Barnbek-Uhlenhorst here

Ground 4

Stadium Zum Schutzenhof – SC Urania

My first shale pitch

Ground 5

Sportplatz Berner Heerweg – SC Condor Hamburg 1956

Athletics track plus adjoining pitches

Ground 6
Hammer Park – Hamm Utd

More athletics but also a great stand

No need to stand on a milk crate, just empty the beer crate

Sunday 15 February 2015, HSV Barmbek - Uhlenhorst 1 SV Halstenbek - Rellingen 0, Wilhelm-Rupprecht-Platz - Oberliga Hamburg

Only a short journey to the home of Barmbek - Uhlenhorst but took a slightly longer route by the brilliant Hamburg Public Transports service to visit the home of VFL Hamburg.

I arrived at the Wilhelm-Rupprecht-Platz with plenty of time to spare and found a fantastic little ground, with over 350 other fans joining me as the hosts took on the current league leaders. This ground had a brilliant feel to it and the design would become quite well known to me by the end of the weekend as a number of grounds were of the similar style. Great terracing, a few seats, no cover, a great clubhouse and the terraces steep enough to get a great view.

Again a free programme and this time more gluhwein but also a half time beer and a frikadelle. The home team won a close game 1-0 and the result was well received by the decent sized crowd.

Best bit? The crates of beer at the feet of the home fans!