"If you take a closer look at the crowds around the pitch watching the Sunday football matches then it is not too difficult to immediately identify a certain sort of so-called 'sports people' where the term ‘camp follower’ hits the nail on the head. I mean the people who have never had a football at their feet, never experienced the benefits of personal hygiene on their own body and obviously have no idea of the meaning of football and its rules. Nevertheless, it is impossible to deny the fact these sports people have a certain interest in sport, particularly in football, even if this interests sometimes is expressed copiously and in a less than pleasant manner. If you hear shouting and noise, interjections and swearing then you can be sure that the camp followers are at work here expressing their interest in the match and sport in this somewhat special way.
Pity the referee who runs the game not according to the wishes of these brothers. The slightest infringement, that the referee should enforce according to them, unleashes limitless howling and protest. There is swearing and mocking and it has been the case that the poor referee has been made clear of the reasons for protests physically. Thankfully those elements are not to be seen at our ground but I do think it is fitting to talk about it once as it could be the case that there may be one or the other reasons for future camp followers to feel they have to turn on themselves and feel like real sportsmen."
Who recognises that? It appears to me that things over the last hundred years have not really changed that much at least at the football pitches in this world.
In this video you can watch impressive and important goals in the history of Bayer 04 in the month of October. It is not always about the beauty of the goals but also about remembering special games and players.
Show moreThe Werkself secured victory against Bayern Munich for the first time on 1 November 1986. On matchday 12, Bayer 04 beat the Bundesliga league leaders 3-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Munich and go top of the table.
Show moreTorben Hoffman was born in Kiel on 27 October 1974. In his youth he played for TuS Schwarz-Weiß Elmschershagen. The qualified policeman joined Holstein Kiel in 1993. Two years later he moved on to VfB Lübeck in Bundesliga two. After relegation with Lübeck in 1997 he came to attention of SC Freiburg and they signed the defender. The team relegated from the Bundesliga went straight back up with Torben who moved under the Bayer Cross in 1999 after another year in the Bundesliga. However, he was unable to establish himself at Leverkusen making only sporadic appearances and he was rarely in the starting XI. He played in a total of 30 games for the Werkself.
Show moreThomas ‘Thommy’ Reichenberger was born in Bad Kreuznach on 14 October 1974. The son of a former Bundesliga player – his father Max made 38 Bundesliga appearances for 1860 Munich – played for Eintracht Bad Kreuznach as a youth player before moving up to the first team.
Show moreManfred ‘Manni’ Pomp was born in Aachen on 25 October 1964. His first football club was the Aachen police sports club (PSV) but he signed for Alemannia Aachen after a year.
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