I was in Liverpool yesterday and was taken with the huge changes there have been since I left in 1979. Then it was synonymous with Militancy and decay, you had to leave to get a job. Now it is a wonderful viable prosperous "visitor experience". My Alan Hansen "Match of the Day" moment of the day was meeting 3 German blokes from Berlin. "Ost oder West?" fragte ich. With political correctness they answered that Berlin was a complete city now, but within seconds they betrayed the fact that they were "Ossies" and proudly told me that their team was Union Berlin. In my mind the English equivalent of Union could be Charlton Athletic.
The comparison would be even more accurate had the Russians annexed and walled south east London and the Secret Police ran Crystal Palace under iron fisted communist rule. However my Charlton/Union Berlin connection was the fan based democracy that exists systematically in Germany Football and acutely in "Cult Clubs" like Union Berlin and until recently St Pauli. This fan democracy flourished on the English scene in the dark days of the 80's when Mrs Thatcher and her puppet cabinet were planning to destroy/regulate football through ID cards. The FSA & the Fanzine movement roundly dispelled the myth that football was merely yobs and morons. Charlton at the time were dying with the rest of football but with smart and democratic action, the fans saved a club with no home and returned it to its rightful place The Valley and Division 1 - That's the Premier League for those who are going to pay £120 to watch Arsenal v Chelsea at The Emirates today.
Back in 80's I was in Valencia for festival of Music called La Conjuras de la Danzes put on by Radical Records. NME hack Danny Kelly came along on a junket and told me the story of a trip to Berlin (East naturally, this was the NME.) Danny got into a deep philisophical debate with some officials from Dynamo Berlin about the rights and wrongs of state intervention in footballing matters. "Surely it's wrong for Dynamo Berlin the state sponsored Stassi football club to enjoy league title after league title." With impeccable German logic his hosts highlighted their belief that surely the same state intervention occurs in England with the Government ensuring continuous success for Liverpool in order supress the militant sponsored socialist revolutionary turmoils in Liverpool.
Liverpool, the city, has developed long and special relationships with Germany since their largely successful attempts to raise it to the ground. Liverpool Boys, the schools FA respresentative XI for under 16 year olds played a regular annual friendship two leg match with Cologne's equivalent team. The Liverpool leg was annually played at Penny Lane, which links beautifully into Liverpool's other gift to Germany. Liverpool gave Germany The Beatles a naive beat troupe in the early sixties and Hamburg returned them months later a wiser, rawer, more commercial, drug fuelled monster ready to be launched on an unexpecting world. My favourite Scouse-German connection is the growing contingent of German men who come to Liverpool regularly on weekends of Football and nightlife. Back in the days when the Kop was being rebuilt and was yet to get a roof, I took my Dad - tickets were easy to buy - cheap and available. We were amazed to meet a group of Borussia Monchengladbach fans over for the weekend. I was waiting for infamous "longest song in football" zwei vier sechs acht wer wissen wir zu schätzen wissen B O R .......
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