What Scottish football could learn from Germany’s masterclass

Police gather around, unaggressive and mildly solicitous, until it is ascertained that the drunken man can safely be taken home by friends. The scene is witnessed because I have eschewed my free bus back to the station. I want to walk. The atmosphere is good, the ambience is safe, even though I wear Dortmund colours on a major street in Leipzig on a match night.

I have attended yet another match in Germany. Professionally, I have been going there for some time but have been a Dortmund fan for more than a decade. I have been at all 10 stadiums that will host the Euros. I have come to love the German game, partly because I have been most intrigued by its football culture. Both Scots and Germans, in general, love football. We share a passion. But it is a love story with a different narrative.

So how is it different in Germany? And is it simply better? And, if so, why?

READ MORE: How one youth guru brought up two of Scotland’s Euro finest

These are questions that cover politics, history and more than a slice of social consciousness.   First, that scene in Leipzig struck me because it showed a tolerance for drunken fecklessness that may not have been repeated by the authorities in Glasgow, Edinburgh or anywhere else in Scotland. It was a sign, too, that alcohol is very much a part of the match experience, inside and outside the ground. This does not exist, of course, in Scotland where supporters’ buses can be searched for alcohol and strong drink is not served inside grounds.

The relaxed attitude towards drunkenness was merely an observation. Those travelling to the Euros would do well not to rely on such tolerance, particularly when the police will be tense with the expectation of travelling ultras.

It does suggest, though, that football and its accompanying issues are accepted in Germany in a way that, unbelievably, they are not in the country that formed the modern game. Consider this: political intervention in Scotland over football is normally restricted to summits when players are sent off in a Celtic-Rangers game or increasingly draconian measures of how fans gain access to grounds or even buy tickets.

Politicians, too, seem to distance themselves from the game. But not in Germany: “There’s an understanding that football is the sport that makes Germany tick above all others, a sport rooted in community. It’s not by accident that many politicians have and continue to hold key positions on supervisory boards across the Bundesrepublik,” says Derek Rae, the peerless commentator who is a long-time observer of the Bundesliga and a lifelong Aberdeen supporter.

Politicians in Britain now pay lip service to football. There is a falsity to their words and actions which was best exposed by David Cameron’s failure to distinguish West Ham United from Aston Villa, particularly embarrassing since he purported to support the latter. “It seems more genuine to me and has more to do with a politician’s roots and upbringing and where they come from and less to do with glory hunting,” says Rae of German politicians and their football allegiances.

“The current Bundespresident, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who hails from the industrial west, is a well-known Schalke fan. Schalke have spent the last few years bouncing down, up and down again and are currently in the second division.  “Bavaria‘s equivalent of the first minister, Markus Söder, is a Nürnberg fan. Even though political expediency might lead him to back Bayern München, he supports his local club. Cem Özdemir, the agriculture minister, is a Stuttgart fan and is at games regularly.”

Crucially, this leads to a culture where the fan is not only appreciated but catered for in ways unknown to the average punter in Scotland. The Tartan Army advance on the stadiums in the Euros can be made on foot. This is the way I generally approach Bundesliga matches. I consider a stroll to the stadium part of the matchday experience. The huts, vans and street vendors sell the currywurst and bratwurst that are an essential accompaniment to the Bundesliga and at the ground there are stalls dispensing draught beer and ice-cold cans. One can thus have a beer outside of a stadium before having a beer in the stadium itself.

All this may be a victim of UEFA taking over the grounds and the surrounding areas at the Euros, but it is part of the German football experience to drink, eat and be very merry. Of course, one need not walk to the stadium. After all, the transport links are not only excellent but free.  This free pass is extended to regional travel for fans at the Euros. But on all match days, whether Euros, Bundesliga or European fixtures, fans can travel from the city centre with ease and at no cost.

This means the Tartan Army can roll up to the match against Germany on the U6 underground train that will deposit them on the esplanade outside the Allianz Arena; the S-Bahn will do the same job for the match against Hungary in Stuttgart; and a tram from the city centre will take you right to the door of the Cologne stadium for the match against Switzerland.

Policing on Bundesliga days is also sensible. Again, one would not seek to test their tolerance but there is a recognition that fans like to gather before games at stadiums or in squares in the city centre. There is an acceptance that booze will be involved.

Fans and their boisterous and regularly daft ways are indulged in a fashion that would not be recognised on these shores. This is not to suggest that everything is sweetness and light. There can be an edge to German football. It would not be advisable to wander into Gelsenkirchen in Dortmund colours, for example, but the fan is looked upon as a functioning and valid human being.

There is always the suspicion in Scotland that this is not the view of all politicians or police officers.

However, the biggest and perhaps best lesson to be imported from German football fan culture is the ability of supporters from different teams to unite to confront common problems.

Despite the efforts of many sincere fans in Scotland, there has not been a powerful alliance to combat issues in the Scottish game. For example, most fans would agree that away ticket allocations are not fit for purpose but any move to challenge this dissipates in a welter of fan v fan recrimination. The clubs continue to do what they want.

Contrast this to Germany. There has been unified opposition to a raft of measures that stretches from TV kick-off times and ticket prices to the recent plans to introduce new capital to the Bundesliga through a third party.

READ MORE: This story originally featured in Euro ’24 Scotland and the Euros, a Nutmeg and Herald special

The last issue is fascinating for fans in Scotland who appear distanced from those who run the game and are unhappy with how the sport is conducted commercially.  The German Football League (DFL), which organises the Bundesliga, has voted to transfer part of the next TV rights in return for a capital contribution to help promote the German championship internationally. Supporters’ groups are demanding a new vote, arguing that the deal lacks transparency and is undemocratic.

Games across leagues have been disrupted. A united supporters’ action will likely enforce some kind of change. Is there a lesson here for Scotland?

Rae has a message for his compatriots. “I hope they notice that German fans, while knowing who their football rivals are, often join together on things they have in common. This is why Monday night games were abolished and it’s why ticket prices are lower with free local public transport mostly included. “It’s why social and political issues are spoken about more openly. In Germany, you take a stand.

“Their ire is often reserved more for authorities when they feel they’re being badly treated. In Scotland, I think fans are often doing what the powers that be want them to do: bicker among themselves rather than understanding that as one voice they could be so much more effective. The fan of the other club is not really their ultimate enemy.”

That drunken German fan in Leipzig was treated with tolerance, perhaps even a benign condescension. The German fan as a collective is a strong breed. It, too, demands to be handled with care and respect.