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Posts Tagged ‘History’

DFB 125

The German Football Association looks back at 125 years of existence. It is a rich history with many highs and lows, triumphs and tragedies. Many observers would rather the past quarter of a century to be deleted. Anniversaries like the 125th of the DFB are often overseen or overshadowed by more important dates. In this…

Sign of our time

The current societal climate is dire, racists are becoming ever more confident that they have nothing to fear from the majority because this majority is simply too quiet; it has been too quiet for too long.

Jean-Marie le Pen has been a figurehead of the right in France for a long time. His passing in January led to celebrations in some quarters. However, some hooligan groups of Paris Saint-Germain and Reims FC went as far as to honour le Pen.

The second term of the 47th president of the United States has begun and as if to indicate in which direction politics are heading, the head of a tech giant has raised his right arm in a salute to a crowd that not only resembled the salute of the national socialists in Germany but was easily identified as such by observers.

In an attempt of hurried obedience, the sports apparels manufacturer Nike have issued the new shirt for the Madrid team Atlético. The design leaves little room for speculation.

https://x.com/hooliganscz1999/status/1879114990164291608?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1879114990164291608%7Ctwgr%5Eb5c4e5db223e7b702f23832e0d1f584b4310fd75%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fhooligans.cz%2Findex.php%2Freports%2Fforeign%2Fspan%2Fatletico-madrid-2025-26-home-kit

It is 2025, 80 years after the end of the Second World War and we appear to have not learnt a single lesson from history. The eye witnesses are getting fewer and soon we have to rely on secondary sources for memorial work in schools and elsewhere.

Berne, July 4, 1954 – Notes on a perceived Miracle

‘Rahn should shoot from the background. Rahn shoots! Goal! Goal! Goal!’ These words spoken by radio commentator Herbert Zimmermann in the heat of the moment when Helmut Rahn had scored Germany’s third goal during the World Cup final 1954 in Berne are familiar to many Germans and have become cultural icons like Kenneth Wolstenholme’s words…

Franz Beckenbauer 1945 – 2024

The story of German could have come quite differently, had not one incident decided the fate of the two Munich clubs, 1860 and Bayern, respectively. As a youngster, Franz Beckenbauer played for a small Munich club in his neighbourhood, Giesing. It was his intention to move to TSV 1860 Munich at some point in his…

Gianni Infantino’s moral compass

There is a new president of FIFA and it is the same as the old: Gianni Infantino. The vote was more or less a proclamation of a new king or emperor, less a democratic process. Though, whoever thinks FIFA acts democratically may think twice. Afterwards, the president gave insights into his motivation to stand for…

Orwell and Football

Most people will be familiar with Orwell’s famous statement about football being another means of war which he postulated in an article in The Tribune in 1945 after Dynamo Moscow came to the UK to play a number of friendly games. Orwell’s own experiences of the game are quite different, though they originate from a…

The Miracle of the Grotenburg

There are games that are embedded in football folklore, even more than thirty years later. One of these games happened Krefeld, a town not known for its footballing exploits. Yet, in the 1980s the local team FC Bayer 05 Uerdingen were a force to be reckoned with. In March 1986 they hosted East German side…

Football, Riots, Hypocrisy

The first days of Euro 2016 already gave enough material for discussion. This is the first in a series of observations from the tournament that’s happening right at my door step. According to which media channel you consume, the Euro 2016 so far has been an orgy of violence and riots or been a festival…

40 Years – 7 Tears New Millennium + New Money = Success?

In the previous posts of this series the focus was on the history of FC Magdeburg during the 1970s and early 1990s. Arguably, between 1976 and 1989 almost 13 years have passed without major crises. The 90s however, saw the club tumbling from crisis to crisis. This decade began with a huge breakup in East…

40 Years – 7 Tears: The Fall of the Berlin Wall 1990

1964 – 1974 – 1994 – 2004 – 2014 These 5 dates stand for important dates in the history of FC Magdeburg’s history, one of East Germany’s most popular and successful clubs, before and after 1990. After 1990 with an altered omen. In a series of articles, An Old International recounts the history of ‘The…