Matt Ford
@matt_4d
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Journalist | 🇩🇪 & 🇪🇺 football, sports politics & fan culture | @guardian @bbcsport @TheNewEuropean @11freunde_de @sofoot @theipaper @dwnews | @uwsmag 🇾🇪
North Rhine-Westphalia / Manchester
Joined July 2009
🇩🇪 With the #Bundesliga resuming this weekend, have a listen to @dw_sports' "Project Fußball" podcast on the #50plus1 rule:. EP1: What is it?.EP2: How does it work?.EP3: Scrap 50+1!.EP4: Keep 50+1!.EP5: Werder Bremen CEO Klaus Filbry - exclusive. Spotify:
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History. Bayer 04 Leverkusen are German campions for the first ever time. Bayern Munich’s 11-year dominance of the #Bundesliga is broken by Xabi Alonso’s Werkself.
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After Stuttgart lost to Leverkusen in the cup, Deniz Undav said they were the two best teams in Germany, prompting some.laughter. Now, after VfB finished 2nd: “Yeah, you all made fun of me! So now you can say sorry! Just say: sorry Deniz, we were wrong!”.
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🇩🇪 Bayern Munich & Borussia Dortmund in the #UCL semifinal - and they’re not even the two best teams in Germany this season. Not bad for a league which is apparently being held back by the 50+1 rule and desperately needs private equity investment to compete. There is another way.
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Xabi Alonso: “This title also belongs to my predecessors: Christoph Daum, Klaus Toppmöller, Roger Schmidt and many others. I’m proud to be part of Bayer Leverkusen history.”. #bundesliga
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Modelled on Borussia Dortmund’s south stand, where a season ticket costs €215 (£184). #BVB . Cheapest ticket at Tottenham? £795. All the atmospheric potential of a huge, single-tiered end behind the goal rendered irrelevant by exclusionary pricing. Looks great on TV though.
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Officials had to use an an angle grinder to cut the bicycle locks which HSV ultras fastened to the goalposts on Friday night. Yet a glance at the Hannover away end might have helped: "The solution is 50+01.". According to HSV ultras, the code "50+01" would have opened the locks.
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“15,000 deaths for 5,760 minutes of football - shame on you”. Huge anti-#Qatar World Cup protests in the #Bundesliga this afternoon, including at #HerthaBSC & Borussia #Dortmund. 📷 @FasziFankurve #bvb #BoycottQatar2022
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🇩🇪 This weekend, for the first time ever, total attendance in the 2. Bundesliga (284,643) was higher than the Bundesliga (261,099):. 📈 Incl:.Schalke 1-0 Wiesbaden (60,542).Hertha 3-2 Magdeburg (52,652).Nürnberg 1-1 Kaiserslautern (35,462).Hannover 2-1 Fürth (31,500). via @kicker.
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“For money, we’ll wash anything clean”. FC Bayern München supporters with more criticism of their club’s relationship with #Qatar today, depicting the club as a willing sportswashing machine. [📷 @Sky_Torben] #fcbayern #fcbscf
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Attendance in Hoffenheim this evening: 16,000 (if that). This is what happens when a billionaire is allowed an exemption from 50+1 to bankroll his plaything up the leagues at the expense of proper football clubs who don't have access to such disproportionate levels of funding.
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Last week, Borussia Dortmund supporters became the first to use the new away end at Werder Bremen's Weserstadion. As is common practice, Werder ultras have now published the dimensions of the away end for the benefit of visiting ultras wanting to plan choreos. #bundesliga
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🇮🇩 1. FC Köln last season. 🇾🇪 SG Eintracht Frankfurt this year. 🇩🇪 Giant German clubs with long histories and huge tradition, deeply-rooted in their respective communities - and look what it means. A culture no made-up modern franchise team can ever buy.
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HSV fans on the pitch while Heidenheim score in the 93rd and 99th minutes. This is Schalke 2001 levels. Deary me.
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A novice manager. A squad of mercenaries. Amateur tactics. A board full of marketing men. A non-existent transfer policy. A crumbling stadium. A neglected academy. An ageing match-going support. And parasitic owners. It's taken 14 years but the Glazers have done it. #mufc 🇾🇪.
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After Borussia Dortmund supporters were charged €70 away at both Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle United, away supporters have been charged just €18.50 at the Westfalenstadion. PSG banner: “Paris SG: follow the example!”. 📷 @berger_pj #UCL
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Bundesliga away followings this season, as compiled by @fussballmafiade:. 1️⃣ FC Schalke 04 .Average away following: 7,182.Highest: ~15,000 in Hoffenheim
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While the Premier League prepares to to roll out the red carpet for further state ownership, the #Bundesliga shows there is another way:. - Top 3 level on points.- Top 4 all adhere to #50plus1.- Two of them 100% member-owned.- One beat PSG, one beat Chelsea.- Critical fan culture
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🔴 As is tradition ahead of VfB Stuttgart’s first home game of the season, the “Karawane Cannstatt” made its way through the suburb of Bad Cannstatt towards the Neckarstadion on Saturday. 🔴 One of the great traditions in German fan culture. #Bundesliga.
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SC #Freiburg #ultras’ flyer with choreo instructions and the following:. “Please refrain from stickering or graffitiing the Ostkurve. This is #HerthaBSC’s home end and we respect this.”. “Racist, discriminatory, antisemitic and sexist chants or behaviour will not be tolerated.”
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“In Salzburg, we play the first fiddle - all that counts for you is success and cash, you characterless pigs.”. SV Austria Salzburg at home to the drinks company which stole their club in the Austrian Cup last night, goalkeeper Manuel Kalman wearing a “not for sale” kit. FT: 0-4
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🇩🇪 “German football, regardless of how commercialised it might be, still ultimately belongs to the fans, and not to a few rich people who want to get even richer. This has been made quite clear. And that’s why today is a great day for German football.”.
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Fireworks over Gelsenkirchen tonight following Schalke’s relegation from the #Bundesliga. Reliably informed that Borussia Dortmund ultras are responsible . 😬. #S04 #BVB
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Seen a few snobby comments re GE but this is out of order from Sky. GE has its issues: the same facing post-industrial towns in England, where a lot of Eng fans come from. But you won’t get much more authentic football culture than GE. Welcome to the real world outside London.
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Fascinating debate on the DFL investor deal on prime time German TV. Fan reps & journalists demonstrating a remarkable depth of subject knowledge. Hannover's Martin Kind sticking to his pro-investment line. Markus Babbel representing the typically clueless pro footballer.
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Alemannia Aachen 1-0 Fortuna Köln. Alemannia another step closer to the 3. Liga and professional football for the first time since 2012. 29,500 attendance in the regional fourth division likely higher than Leverkusen & red bull in the #Bundesliga today.
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1. It's photoshopped. It's not real. 2. Hilarious how a complete absence of regulation has seen #MUFC stripped of £1.5bn and left to rot. 3. Hilarious when supporters take a stand. 4. Those same supporters you praised for stopping the Super League. English football is a farce.
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The replies:.- But what about their away tickets?.- But what about the Bundesliga?.- But what about Adidas?.- But what aout Qatar?.- But what about the old Nazi badge?. Absolutely clueless. The level of the general debate on club ownership in English football is in the gutter.
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#Eintracht #Frankfurt president Peter Fischer on the final: “Against Rangers! Tradition vs. tradition, it doesn’t get any better.”. And asked a pointed question about the fans on the pitch: “They deserve it. This is Frankfurt. This is football. This is the joy of life.”. #UEL.
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The most heartbreaking/hilarious moment, depending on your perspective, is around 50secs when the news of Heidenheim’s winner filters through but the HSV fans think it’s Regensburg who have scored 🫣.
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Borussia Dortmund win the “group of death” and the Bundesliga with more teams in the last-16 than the Premier League. BVB beat Newcastle home and away. Bayern beat United home and away. Not bad for a league which so desperately needs a private equity investor to compete. #ucl.
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Lots of media outlets today making that unfortunate error of inviting ex-pro footballers to comment on fan culture and football supporters, despite the fact that, by virtue of having been pro footballers, they have zero clue about fan culture or football supporters. Frustrating.
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Markus Babbel und Ariane Hingst hier völlig fehl am Platz. Immer wieder erstaunlich wie wenig Ahnung Profifußballer*innen von ihrer eigenen Branche haben. #hartaberfair.
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Wolfsburg attendance given as 28,917 - “sold out.” Now, all tickets may have been sold but they certainly weren’t all used. Even with Bayern in town. If the DFL wants the #Bundesliga to be more attractive, enforcing 50+1 is the place to start, not private equity. 📷 @AZ_Strasser
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I asked Dayot Upamecano what he and Nico Schlotterbeck were laughing about before the first goal. Upamecano:. “He spoke to me! He said:.‘ça va?’ So I said: ‘ça va, et toi?’ And then I went, and I went fast. I did everything I could to score that goal!”. 📷 @archiert1 #bvbfcb
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German fan culture:.pic 1 - with active fan scene & ultras.pic 2 - without. #bundesliga #bvb 🙄🪧
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1. FC Union Berlin wearing white “Star Trek” kits today to advertise a new series on Paramount, the usual kit sponsor. Fans on the Waldseite terrace:. “Home games in white for this marketing shite?”. “Marketing gags need banning - home games in home kit!”. #bundesliga
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"You adorn yourselves in the symbols of the working class - don't forget them with your ticket prices!". #BVB wearing an all-black kit designed to recall the coal & steel history of the city. Yet at €240 per year, BVB standing tickets are the most expensive in the #Bundesliga.
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According to reports in Germany, Bayern Munich have decided not to extend their shirt sleeve sponsorship deal with Qatar Airways. Bayern's organised support and ultra groups have long campaigned against the deal, including at a dramatic AGM in 2021.
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Compare:. Hansa Rostock supporters away at Viktoria Köln in the 3. Liga on Fri night (19:00). red bull customers away at German champions Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga on Sat night (18:30). Still robbing a league place by circumventing regulations. And for what? For who?
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Next season's 2. Bundesliga:. Schalke 04.Hertha BSC.1. FC Nürnberg.Fortuna Düsseldorf.Hannover 96.1. FC Kaiserslautern.FC St. Pauli.1. FC Magdeburg.Karlsruher SC.Hansa Rostock.Holstein Kiel.Eintracht Braunschweig. Plus either Hamburger SV or VfB Stuttgart. #2BL 😍.
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red bull coach Marco Rose sent off for two bookings in 30 seconds for dissent and takes a seat in the stands, only for a Leverkusen fan to come back from the bar and say (presumably): “‘scuse me, mate, you’re in my seat.���”. #bundesliga
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“Borussia Dortmund are going to be champions and Schalke are going down …”. 👀😬. 🎥 @berger_pj #bundesliga .
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1. FC Kaiserslautern, back in Bundesliga 2 for the first time in four years, accompanied by around 10,000 supporters away at Hamburger SV last night. FT: Hamburg 1-1 Kaiserslautern . 🎥 @rumbutchan / @kurvenhelden.#hsvfck #2BL.
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BREAKING: #Bundesliga investor deal off. DFL supervisory board chair Hans-Joachim Watzke: "Given current developments, a successful continuation of the process no longer appears possible.".
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Harry Kane on his assist for Jamal Musiala:. "At Spurs, Son would always make that run and I'd always look for that pass. So I spoke to Jamal about it and I caught him out the corner of my eye today. He practices that shift and shot a lot. One of my better assists.". #bundesliga.
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Unique FC #Schalke04 choreo vs. SC Freiburg on Sunday, involving smoke released into a huge kit-shaped balloon, colouring it blue. Never seen anything like this before, fantastic work from the Ultras Gelsenkirchen 👏🏼 . #s04 #bundesliga.
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Crystal Palace supporters away at Saudi-owned Newcastle United this afternoon. During the LIV golf lawsuit in the US in March, #NUFC chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan was described as “a sitting minister of the Saudi government,” contrary to NUFC & Premier League claims. 📷 private
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Dynamo Dresden celebrating promotion this afternoon. Everyone having a lovely time. [@FunkeSport] #sgd1953 #3liga
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"The #UCL tune doesn't merit admiration, but contempt". 1. FC Union Berlin ultras have criticised UEFA for the requirements which have forced Union into a move to the Olympiastadion home games, but also question their own club's commitment to the values of their own ground.
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#Euro2024 arrives in Hamburg today, where the “fan zone” is outside FC St. Pauli’s Millerntor stadium. Banners placed by Ultrà Sankt Pauli:. “Love your club, not your fatherland”. “Those who start the race as patriots finish it as fascists.”. [via @UltraFCSP2002/@FasziFankurve]
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The end product: a super-sized tapestry of flags and banners documenting the history of the #Ultras #Frankfurt. #sgecfc #uel
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Absolutely nothing worse than these fake, corporate marketing displays. Tottenham have even recycled theirs. And I’m not entirely sure what the Barcelona ones even mean. All part of a passive, consumerist, entertainment culture, and the complete opposite of fan culture. #UCL
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Some of the approx 15,000 Eintracht Frankfurt supporters in Milan this evening making their way to the San Siro. The #Bundesliga side have been officially allocated 13,500 tickets. Mind blowing support. #sge #intsge .
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#Eintracht #Frankfurt supporters leaving their standing terrace empty at home to 1. FC #Union #Berlin this evening in protest at Monday night football, which is set to be discontinued in the #Bundesliga as of 2021-22. Background for @dw_sports ➡️
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An historic football club, an iconic stadium and a great northern English city being blatantly instrumentalised and used as a platform for an autocratic nation state. See also: Manchester. The bitter, sad reality of the UK in 2023. Take back control? This is what it looks like.
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No banners or flags on 1. FC Köln's Südkurve tonight in protest at the opposition. Just one banner written in Kölsch:. "For some, you're an investment looking for profit - for others, you are life with all its worries, happiness and pain.". 📷 @fckoelnfrance #bundesliga
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BVB ultras on trip to Newcastle:. "It was clear that large parts of the fanbase couldn't give a shit about the reasons for their revival. Fans with Saudi flags or shirts with MBS' name were no rarity. The end appears to justify all means, no matter how bloody the money might be."
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FC Hansa Rostock relegated to the 3. Liga. Supporters taking it, well, as expected.
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Bayern Munich ultras showing just what effect their away leg ban for the use of pyrotechnics has had. 🎥 @JMThorogood #UCL .
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Three weeks after beating Barcelona on penalties, 1. FSV Mainz 05 have now also knocked Manchester city out of the UEFA Youth League. Mainz's ultras mobilised for both games at the club's historic Bruchwegstadion. 🎥 @1FSVMainz05.
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The pre-requisite for the sort of atmosphere generated at Marseille, at Boca, in Germany and elsewhere is a young, active, engaged and socially-inclusive fan culture. English football has a capitalistic, passive, consumer culture.
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“This club means everything to people in Köln, and to me too. That’s why I’ve extended my contract for the 2nd division and I hope others will follow suit. We have a transfer ban so we need every player.”. 🇲🇨 1. FC Köln striker Mark Uth after relegation.
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Bayern & Dortmund fans with a joint message for the DFL regarding exemptions from the #50plus1 rule:. Bayern: “DFL: All are equal …”.BVB: “… some are more equal”.Both: “Implement 50+1 properly!”. Full background on @dw_sports ➡️
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Polite reminder to adult football fans in both Germany and England that football kits are for children anyway. Perhaps consider focussing your outrage on state ownership, multi-club ownership, dubious investors, corruption, ticket prices, police violence and VAR.
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