Updated Wednesday, November 22, 2023 – 12:05
The leftist club par excellence loses numerous fan clubs due to its position in favor of Israel. “All clubs have contradictions but at St. Pauli the values are essential,” says historian Carles Vias
The St. Pauli fans, this season.Stuart FranklinWORLD
A couple of years ago, Iigo Rejn He was proud of the soccer jersey that a photographer from Ms Pas was wearing in the Congress of Deputies. “Our photographer today, in his best clothes. Pride,” wrote the politician on old Twitter. It was not a shirt from Rayo Vallecano, nor from Atlético, much less from Real Madrid, Errejn’s own team. It was a shirt from a Bundesliga 2 team: St. Pauli.
“St. Pauli is an island in modern football. A club where its fans are the axis and in which it is more important to defend values than to win,” he tells EL MUNDO. Carles Vias, author with Natxo Parra of the book ‘St.Pauli. Another football is possible (Capitan Swing, 2017)’. In the 80s, when the extreme right was sweeping the stands of half of Europe, St. Pauli gained popularity around the world for its contrary ideology – an anti-fascist, anti-racist and anti-homophobic club, say its statutes – and since then it has been the favorite of left-wing football fans.
Despite not entering the Bundesliga since 2011, each year its merchandising is the third best-selling in Germany behind those of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Despite not having played in Europe, the club has more than 400 “support groups” throughout the continent. Or have Because these days he is experiencing an unexpected crisis with his own followers. It could be about signing a coach or a player, but it’s not: it’s about Israel.
Crossing of communications
It all started more than a month ago, on October 7th. After the Hams terrorist attack, St. Pauli issued a statement condemning the events and expressed its solidarity with Hapoel Tel Aviv, an Israeli club with which it is twinned. “We condemn the religious fundamentalism, human rights abuses and unspeakable brutality of the Hams regime,” the letter read. In it the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, but the controversy was already created. Several international fan clubs showed on social networks their discontent with St. Pauli’s sympathy towards Israel and three days later, on October 10, 14 of them, including the Catalan, based in Barcelona, signed a response statement.
“The club has not taken a position in favor of the Palestinian civilians who have lived under a constant blockade for 14 years,” read the text of the ‘international supporters’, who declared themselves understanding with the directive because “Germany’s relationship with Israel “it’s delicate”, but at the same time they demanded “a change of opinion”. Those words raised spirits in the St. Pauli offices, where opinions from outside have not always been well received, especially from those who have approached the entity out of fashion. And, in that tone, the club’s support coordination issued a third statement. “Some fan clubs have crossed the line,” he said. “Minimizing and legitimizing Hamas terrorist attacks is not an opinion and is completely unacceptable,” he continued, and from that moment on the divorce is a fact.
In recent days, many St.Pauli fan clubs, such as the Basque or the Catalan, have announced their disappearance or, at the very least, the end of activities. “If the club and its people justify this continued massacre [en relacin a Gaza]”We are forced by our values to stop belonging to it,” the Bilbao group proclaimed. “After the declaration of the coordination of protests that accused us of legitimizing those murdered by Hamas, we have decided to suspend all activities,” it added. that of Barcelona. The St. Pauli board is trying to mediate, they have promised a meeting with the international ‘fan clubs’ at the end of the season, but today the distance seems insurmountable.
“It is a complicated issue because in Germany the conception of Israel is different, historical memory weighs a lot, there are also family roots… All clubs have contradictions and the fans must accept them, but in the case of St. Pauli the values are “essential”, concludes Vias, who assumes that, after what happened, the external image of St. Pauli will change forever. Perhaps in the future there will not be another left-wing politician who talks about “pride.”
2023-11-22 11:05:26
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