Are you allowed to do that? Ask for silence in the stadium and turn the sound floor down to zero? No, dimming the sound of fan culture would be sacrilege. So now there’s an outing with the potential for a storm of indignation: Please, more of these twelve minutes of silent ultras and sympathizers like the recent one in Dortmund in the cup against Leverkusen.
How can one find a blessing in fans’ protest against politicians’ demands? Ultras would ask whether you never feel goosebumps when they orchestrate their concert, acoustically dubbing everything, such as the game. But yes, yes.
It was only because of this experience that the silence in Dortmund could be heard so well, the original sound of great sport, the demanding conversation without words between spectators and players. If they are good, they approach the goal, the ball flies just past, the goalkeeper makes a spectacular save, then an ah or oh resonates through the stadium.
Everyone sees it, even if they only hear it: how bad things depress the mood, how good things initiate a turnaround, give players a leg up, and how they can fly again when they are just devastated. Fan culture is not necessarily the same as football culture.
Worth a look
