Long live the ‘Blue and White Alliance’

This week marks the seven year anniversary since the foundation of our supporters’ friendship between Leicester City and VfL Bochum. The first Fox to travel to Bochum’s Ruhrstadion takes a trip down memory lane to recall how the ‘Blue and White Alliance’ started, and reflects on its continued growth.

Tagging along with some Barnet fans on a Bundesliga trip as a 17 year old, us two Leicester lads could never have imagined what would become when we walked into the pub in Bochum. I’d been a little intimidated when I first walked in, baby faced and soft voiced I was meeting tall, burly, deep voiced Germans. I’d try to dispel the stereotypes in my head but even so, I was amazed by how friendly they were. They welcomed us into their local pub and were interested to know why we were watching their beloved team.

It was not just the fans in the pub that impressed me about Bochum, the club itself were fantastic. The terraces were commonplace in Germany – but the ability to stand up, have a beer and a singsong all whilst watching your team was completely alien to me. The stadium, while slightly bland, had been made to feel homely and authentic with some graffiti art and the sale of the locally produced beer we’d all soon end up enjoying – Fiege. The club also put out a welcome message on the stadium TV for the Barnet fans who were attending, which was a very nice gesture of them.

Trying to feed my new found appetite another trip was arranged the following year, this time the amount of Foxes attending had doubled to 4. The usual antics were had in Bochum.

This was the inaugural trip for the newly formed VfL Britain group, an official English supporters group of the football club (see bottom of linked page). This was mainly a collaboration of the Leicester and Barnet fans that had been to watch Bochum over the recent years, but others joined from across the country.

2009 also saw us take in our first Bochum away game, an unfortunate defeat in the BayArena, Leverkusen. Despite the result it was still an incredible experience and a thoroughly enjoyable one too.

Another away trip followed in 2010 to Bayern Munich. Our group had grown again but unfortunately we watched VfL lose 3-1 and get relegated to the 2.Bundesliga. Bayern happened to win the league that day so it was an incredible party in Munich afterwards.

The Bochum fans paid visits to watch Leicester on the road too, bringing over a small group of fans for Milwall away in 2009. Trips to West Brom in 2010 and West Ham in 2011 followed. Also in 2011, they finally came to watch us at Filbert Way! Not put off by the fact they couldn’t drink or stand freely they’ve arranged 4 more separate trips since to come and visit our wonderful city. Further away vists to Milwall (again) and Crystal Palace in London followed and the group was growing every time.

Another trip to Bochum followed in 2011, but it was not until 2012 that the group really started to grow. A core group of 6 of us travelled to watch VfL play the not so gigantic fixture against Hansa Rostock. A thoroughly good time was had by all on the Ostkurve terrace and the friendship has not looked back since.

Next came the match against Jahn Regensburg in February 2013, where we proudly got to display our new flag with our German friends outside the Bierkutshcer pub (RIP), while the same month three of us travelled to Stuttgart for the DFP Pokal quarter-final.

The last 2 years have seen the most growth of our group. Last summer around 15 of the VfL Britain group had the unforgettable experience of riding the “Sonderzug” party train overnight from Bochum to Munich. The biggest group of Bochum fans so far came to visit Leicester just last month, taking a particular shine to our lovely city pubs. Our Facebook group now has over 650 likes and continues to grow on both sides of the channel.

Our flag still lives strong (despite the efforts of Stuttgart Ultras in 2013 after the DFB Pokal match) and this weekend, on the 7th anniversary of our friendship a huge contingent of around 20 Leicester fans will take in Bochum and its fantastic nightlife when they watch VfL take on Braunschweig. While I can’t make the game myself due to being away training in Ireland, I am immensely proud of our little alliance. I look forward with great excitement to my next visit in May, but even more so I look into the future and wonder as to how big this might grow come our 10 year anniversary.

For anyone who would like to get involved with future trips to Germany please feel free to get in touch on our Facebook page or  email us at filbospirit@gmail.com. Everyone is welcome and this is not a closed circle.

Bochum Boys on tour in Leicester

In recent weeks supporters from VfL Bochum have been present in SK1 for both the games against Villa and Stoke. Here is one lad’s account of his weekend in Leicester and the problems posed by modern football in England.

Just as I began writing this article, I thought about friendships between clubs from England and Germany. It seems that England and Germany don’t get along when it comes to football, but I always thought that there is something magical about England and how football and culture go hand in hand.

Sure, Hamburg SV is friendly with Glasgow Rangers and their town rivals from St. Pauli are really close to Celtic; but what about England and Germany? There is that 23-year-old connection between Borussia Mönchengladbach and Liverpool FC and then, there’s us. VfL Bochum and Leicester City FC.

Back in 2014, I got in contact with some lads from Leicester. We were on our way to Munich for our last away game of the season, the organised Bochum supporters put up a special train. A hell of a ride, but I was glad to meet some fine gentlemen who portrayed themselves in a presentable manner for this away excursion. Just to put that straight: we had some pints and a good laugh together, even if we can hardly remember it, as the adage goes: “if you remember that away game, you weren’t there”.

On that day, the idea of taking the friendship (which was founded in 2007) to next level was born. I asked about 20 Bochum supporters (who I knew were interested in our friendship or even had been to Leicester before) if they were interested in attending a LCFC home game. Predictably, they were. Funny enough, I was the only person who knew our friends from Leicester, so the rest of our travelling group would get thrown thrown in at the deep end of English football!

After no end of Facebook messages and e-mails, payments for the tickets and hotel rooms (thanks again to Dom and Simon!), nine Bochum foxes were ready to go. The journey was supposed to go like this: Flight from Dortmund to London Stansted > taxi to Leicester > a quick check-in and off to the pubs! As you might imagine, it didn’t entirely turn out that way…

After a last local Fiege pilsner in Bochum we went to Dortmund to catch our 3 pm flight to London and took our taxi to Leicester, so far so good. As we arrived at our hotel, the first problem arose: A breakdown in communication at the hotel meant we only had two rooms but needed three. Our Leicester friends came by and helped us by somehow organising another room, despite the hotel being booked up. I admit that it wasn’t the best way to break the ice, but we introduced ourselves and thankfully came along just great!

We threw our luggage into our rooms and headed to the Highcross for a spot of dinner and some good Leicestershire ‘Tiger’, which turned out to be our favourite ale. Since I organised the whole trip and put together nine Bochum Foxes who had never previously travelled together, I was a little bit worried that some lads wouldn’t fit in. I was so wrong. After the first pint, everybody had a chat with our new friends and (to seamlessly mix English and German expressions) we could easily ‘shake off the yoke’ of our ‘rusty English’. The bonding continued in the next pub (Cafe Bruxelles, thanks again to Markus for that bottle of rum), and after that we called it a day at midnight and went to sleep.

A decent drop, even for a German mouth

We woke up around 8am and started to get excited. Football day! We all agreed to meet once again at the Highcross for an English breakfast and a fine pint. We were all wearing Bochum scarves to swap them with LCFC fans whom weren’t familiar with our friendship yet. To our surprise, our Leicester mates were already wearing Bochum scarves. That’s what it’s all about!

We went to our instant favourite pub in Leicester, the Swan & Rushes, a proper pub to get a nice pint before kick-off. By the time we left this oh so friendly boozer, there was a Bochum scarf hanging over the bar! We had some interesting conversations as a lot of older LCFC fans walked up to us and asked us what we were doing here. We explained the tradition and history of the LCFC-VfL friendship and everyone was instantly amazed and somehow touched that there were Foxes from Germany coming over to support the league’s bottom club.

Now proudly hanging in ‘Der Schwan und Binsen’

The march to the ground was just as I imagined it. A group of 30-50 walking through a typical English residential neighbourhood and warming themselves up with some Leicester and Bochum chants. You just can’t imagine the feeling of an Englishman starting to sing one of the most famous chants from your hometown! Bochumer Jungen in blau und weiss…
As we arrived at the Filbert Way (or as it is officially called, King Power Stadium), we were automatically reminded of our beloved Ruhrstadion in Bochum, which nowadays goes by the name of Rewipowerstadion in another interesting similarity. The architecture and the view on the ground are easily comparable. That was pretty much everything the English football experience has in common with its German counterpart.

We got mentally prepared that football and everything that happens on the terraces is not at all similar to Germany anymore, but to be honest: it was scarier than we thought. Good thing was that in “our” section the supporters weren’t sitting down, even if thousands of other attendants were more “well-behaved” and remained seated for the whole game. Even though the game was not worthy any comment, the Union FS from the SK1 section did a terrific job by singing and cheering through the whole game. This is typical for German stadiums as well, but it was good to see that some supporters don’t let the original idea of football support go down the drain. The Bochum Foxes joined the singing nevertheless, so of course, we had a party even if Jamie Vardy sadly did not…

There is something about modern grounds that still bothers me today. In Germany, you’re free to take your stance, take your 5% beer with you, have a smoke, wave your flags and hang your flags and banners. English stadiums appear clinically over-controlled. I’m a smoker and I don’t have a problem with not smoking for 45-90 minutes, but when it comes to football it isn’t the same thing without a drink and a fag. Going to a game shouldn’t be like going to the opera! It’s about cheering, shouting, jumping around, having a drink with your mates – leave your everyday life behind you, if only for 90 minutes. Our lads from Leicester really try their best to create some atmosphere in the ground (which they do – with awesome chants that are unparalleled to chants in Germany!), and we’re proud of that. The time of war on the terraces is long gone (and Thatcher’s dead), but the government crippled football in a horrifying way. It really makes me sad.

Nevertheless, the Bochum Foxes were glad to be there anyway. You can officially call you a fan/supporter if you have ever been to the home ground of your club. We did that and we know for certain it won’t be our last visit!

After leaving Filbert Way with mixed feelings, we headed back to the Swan & Rushes to moisten our dried-up throats. Three pubs, a lot of pints and great conversations later, four lads from Bochum and three lads from Leicester ended up in a nightclub with a quality choice of music. You don’t hear “My Generation” by the great The Who in German nightclubs that often…

Our way back home started at 9 am. As you can imagine: some lads from our group were terribly hung over, but we travelled back to Germany with awesome memories. We met great people, got introduced to the famous English pub culture and are very happy to know that our beloved VfL Bochum is always remembered by a growing number of supporters from Eng-land. We can’t wait for our blue and white friends to visit us in Bochum for the game against Braunschweig.

Blue and white for life! 1884 and 1848 were both good years for football.

JK, Bochum

Union FS at the World Cup

One of our members was fortunate enough to fly the blue flag for Leicester City and Union FS out in Brazil for the group stages of the 2014 World Cup. Taking in games in Salvador, Recife, Natal and Porto Alegre, here’s the story of the journey and the fan culture he experienced in South America.

FIFA GO HOME. That was the tagline appropriated by the British press in the weeks leading up to the federation’s show-piece event as the overbearing emotion demonstrated by the locals in Brazil. Coverage of protestations by the Brazilians, disenfranchised by their government’s alleged overspending on the tournament and the 2016 Summer Olympics was recycled endlessly to fill column inches and news reports.

One could be forgiven for thinking that they were heading to a country not bothered about football. It would be naïve to believe that the money spent on providing the necessary infrastructure all over this behemoth of an emerging nation could not have been spent more wisely elsewhere. But this is Brazil. A country thoroughly obsessed with the sport.

On arrival in Salvador, it was immediately apparent that those disturbed by their country’s profligacy in hosting the ‘Copa’ would be outshouted massively by the excited majority of Brazilians. Salvador, the capital of Afro-Brazilian culture, was in the mood to party – particularly after the Seleҫӓo had dispatched Croatia in the opening fixture – and welcome the hordes of Dutch fans that our connecting flight from Lisbon (amongst others) had delivered to the Bahian city ahead of their 5-1 demolition job of Spain. Kids of all ages danced and sang throughout the night with the Oranje who dominated the city’s historic centre, Pelourinho. Spanish fans were few and far between – hardly surprising given the apparent ‘can’t be arsed to travel’ culture prevalent in their national league structure.

Arena Fonte Nova, Salvador

Not much needs to be said about the game in Salvador itself. You will have all likely seen the Robin Van Persie and Arjen Robben inspired rout of the reigning World Champions. The Arena Fonte Nova, conveniently plonked in the middle of several Salvadorian favelas, shuddered in disbelief after each second-half goal for the Dutch hit the back of Iker Casillas’ net. Walking outside the stadium, the evening was capped with the pleasure of seeing several locals rock Sepp Blatter’s heavily escorted car as it attempted to make a swift getaway, presumably towards his private jet.

VfL Bochum: Relegation football, Bundesliga winning partying!

 

Following on from the recent post explaining the Leicester-Bochum link, here’s a review of the latest trip to the continent undertaken by some of our members

Pombar, delicious pombar.

Salty snacks shaped like teddy bears you can shove into your gob nine at a time from a big bag (only a Euro an’ all!) while trying to balance a six pack of Warsteiner in your other hand. Bouteflika, one of the lads in our party, is already seething.

Not only has the daft bastard already bought the German equivalent of Shandy Bass from the shop thinking he was gonna get boozy, he’s then tried to make amends by buying a six pack – which turned out to be ALCOHOL FREE.

It’s midnight and I’m in the concourse of Bochum Hauptbahnhof amid a throng of Germans clad largely in blue and white scarves – some looking moody, some looking happy, all buzzing for what’s ahead of us.

It’s a train journey.

But this ain’t your average Ivanhoe line trundler from Sileby. This is the Sonderzug – a Football Special chartered by the fans of VfL Bochum to carry them right across the country for a crunch relegation battle at 1860 Munich. We get up to the platform and it isn’t exactly the Orient Express, but it’s going to be one hell of a party over the next eight and a half hours (like I say, it’s a  long way to Munich).

Pombar – the perfect meal

There’s a good contingent of about 15 English (with the majority Leicester) aboard and we’re soon into the beer and the City songbook with the German lads we know. There’s a designated disco carriage, complete with a bar, and it’s not long before we go to explore. The DJ’s playing a weird mix of German pop, Anglo-American rock and just about anything which made the charts in the 1990s. It’s a solid soundtrack as we roll through the Teutonic night, getting slowly drunker and doing our best to keep our dancing shoes on while the crazy Bochumers mosh around us.

At one point the emergency cord is pulled, leading to a mass pile-on and my poor mate Twiglet’s glasses getting smashed. He’s off his rocker and couldn’t give a fuck. We party on.

I myself manage to stay up for the entirety of the journey down south, winding up singing Oasis numbers and Football’s Coming Home (Germans absolutely love that tune) while shoving my head out the window, tongue out like a dog, to take in the fresh Bavarian air – off my nut on a combination of rum and snuff.

The English contingent (VfL Britain) partying on the Sonderzug – the eyes being painted over is purely decorative

We get into Munich and there’s an army of Deutsch Robocops there to greet us.

As soon as I step off the train I feel groggy – a night of dancing on a moving train has rendered my legs useless and it feels like there’s a perpetual earthquake going on under me. Regardless, we hit the English Beer Garden and I reckon half a lager shandy will do me good. Except in Munich there is no such thing. You ask for a beer and get a fuck off jar which is a struggle to carry, let alone drink.

I take about three hours to get mine down, the party life taking its toll as even a decent schnitzel fails to rouse me to life.

Bochum have a bit of an alliance with Bayern Munich (something to do with the fact they both hate Dortmund), and so a few Bayern fans have joined us. We march from the Garden to the tube station en masse, singing songs (a lot of German chants are a bit derivative, but there’s some originality there and of course the support is constant).

The singing continues on the train, aided by a cardboard cut out of Claudia Schiffer the Bochum fans have as a mascot and which has already been dry-humped to death in the disco carriage of the Sonderzug.

We get to the Allianz Arena and as someone who hates sitting at football, I can honestly say I’ve never been so relieved to see seats.
I feel like a right clown for not being at my best, but I desperately need a rest before the game. In fact, most of us sneak a little kip in at some point.

The 1860 Ultras are making a fair noise at the other end, but their Bochum equivalents are putting on a show as the teams come out. A huge blue smoke bomb is detonated (not like the shitty little ones the kids seem to love setting off over here, I’m talking a proper cloud of blue so thick we couldn’t see the game going on) followed by a red one to celebrate the Bochum-Bayern link.

On the pitch Bochum are dogshit. I’ve seen them win once in four visits over there and sod’s law I was too pissed to remember that one.
But the Bochum fans keep singing regardless, even when a few of them (including a couple of our contingent) come in for some stick from some heavy-handed policing. 1860 breeze the game 2-0, but results elsewhere have gone Bochum’s way and they’ve survived.

I’m spent and I pass the first two hours of the return journey in a deep sleep in our carriage.

Oh Claudia…

But soon I feel well enough to hit the disco carriage for a dance and couple of glasses of Fiege (Bochum’s brewery which they’re seriously proud of – imagine Leicester fans going to games wearing Everard’s scarves!)

There’s more German pop, more metal, a singalong to Wonderwall, and even some Spice Girls. “Zigazig AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” scream one of the German lads we know, clearly recalling one of his past visits to England in our end at West Ham where we spent the second half tormenting Rob Green (“Twat! You’re shit AH!” is a favourite Leicester chant of our Bochum friends, along with “One man went to burn…”)

I retire back to get what sleep I can around 1am, still around three hours from Bochum. We’ve cemented old friendships and made some new ones too, the link between Leicester and Bochum grows stronger, and we’ve learned a carriage full of 30 German hooligans can do a surprisingly good impression of the Backstreet Boys.

It’s a trip I’d be happy to repeat soon.

The German Leicester?

Little did I know what I had discovered when walking into a pub full of strangers in another country.

As a young lad wanting to experience the German football culture that most of us have read about, I decided to tag along on an organised trip with some guys from London. After visiting Hamburg’s rockers, St.Pauli (that’s a story for another day!), we headed to a city I’d never heard of – Bochum.

A long train journey from Hamburg and we arrived in the city. Nothing special here I thought to myself. A short walk up and we arrived at the “Bierkutcher” pub. Walking in to to be introduced to lots of strangers who spoke varying degrees of English from fully lingual to a similar language ability to my own! A bit scared and shy, I never would have expected such a warm welcome from the Germans. The pub and all the ‘Bochumers’ were decked out in blue and white scarves! This is where the similarities started. A few rounds of the local “Fiege” beer and plenty of shots later we headed to the stadium.

Bierkutscher pub, Bochum – R.I.P

Luckily the walk to the ground was only 5 minutes! There was the 2nd similarity – the stadium! It was a 30,000 odd capacity bowl type stadium with little character which reminded me straight away of Leicester’s own ground. It does have much more character once inside though; a huge terrace in the home end with a wall behind, artistically decorated by the loyal following that fill it every other weekend.

Ruhrstadion, Bochum

The game was brilliant! Bochum beat Schalke 3-2 and I had an instant connection with VfL Bochum! I had made friends for life and an experience that I would never forget. When I got home I was hooked. I started looking up VfL & the Bundesliga in general. Then there was a third comparison to Leicester.  Bochum have two big neighbours who are arguably more famous – Borrusia Dortmund & Schalke. VfL also come from the “Westphalia” region of Germany where a huge majority of clubs come from, reminding me of the Midlands back home and Leicester’s many near-reach enemies.

I then looked at Bochum’s table history and there was another canny comparison – they were a yoyo team! They had spent years in the 1st & 2nd Bundesliga with minimal success in the top flight where most seasons were a struggle to stay in the league. An occasional foray into the UEFA cup also drew my attention.

There it was, I was convinced this is the German version of Leicester City Football Club! I was hooked and have been back several time since. Spreading the love of VfL, the number of fans travelling over to Germany grew & grew. And reciprocating trips of Bochum fans to watch Leicester grew the bond between. Last year a flag was drawn up, designed and printed.

Leicester & Bochum flag

This year we headed over with a group 15-20 strong on what is known as a “Sonderzug” – let me explain this one. VfL played away at 1860 Munich in the Allianz Arena. Instead of selling bus tickets for the 1200km, 11 hour round trip, the club put on a football special train (the direct translation of Sonderzug). But this wasn’t your typical football special. This train departed from Bochum at midnight the day before the game and arrived into Munich in the early morning ready for the pubs to open. It was not just the timing that made this so special though. There was a carriage that had been gutted out of seats with a dance floor put in their place. Kitted out with a DJ booth and bar this was one hell of a football special!

 

More on this to follow…

 

Europe and Beyond: The Royal Blue visit the Rouge et Bleu

As the Portsmouth coastline disappeared behind us we wondered what we were sailing into. This was our boldest footballing pilgrimage yet; one that would involve a six-hour crossing to a country where we didn’t speak the language and it didn’t speak ours.

Still, as the old saying goes, football is a universal language and we were in search of a good conversation. Poetic bulls@£$% aside, we were two Leicester City fans making our first trip to Normandy to show our support for a club unlike our own, despite modest beginnings.

Stade Malherbe Caen was founded exactly 100 years ago in 1913 but was an amateur club until 1985. Named after Norman poet Francois de Malherbe, the club has bounced between France’s top two divisions in recent years. The club’s fiercely loyal support believes Malherbe to be a top-flight club and is endlessly restless when they aren’t there. Sound familiar?

My interest in the club began while studying for a degree in Journalism. Wanting to specialize in football like the rest of the world and his brothers, I decided I would attempt to gain a good knowledge of all major European leagues. I figured the easiest way to do this would be to pick a team and chart their progress. Interests in Schalke 04 and Chievo Verona fell by the wayside but it was Malherbe that stayed with me. Chosen purely because they wore the same colours as FC Barcelona, a club I have followed since I was seven (a story for another day), Malherbe had captured my attention.