Credit: This article first appeared on bundesligachitchat.wordpress.com

Welcome To The Hell Of St Pauli…

Hamburg St Pauli is a club that stands against everything discrimination from racism to homophobia or fascism to sexism, Hamburg St Pauli operates on a "More Than Football" agenda that helps people from unprivileged backgrounds and all nationalities to come together to Hamburg St Pauli making it one of the most iconic clubs in German football. A lot of fans came to Hamburg St Pauli originally after the Second World War as Hamburger SV had a problem with racism in the club and fans who didn't believe in the nazi regime and ideology said that they no longer wanted to support a club that had a large proportion of its fan base as Nazis and so switched to St Pauli who's ideas are the complete opposite and inspire a all for one and one for all message to its fans.

St Pauli is a real socialist club with their left wing ethos and formally against modern football by offering fans better methods of supporting their club with cheaper tickets and not having a commercialised club that most of the other Bundesliga clubs are which is something that makes Hamburg St Pauli completely unique.

FC St Pauli play their games in the Millerntor which is renowned for its fierce and intimidating atmosphere which also includes a pre match ritual where there is 7 minutes of complete silence as the team enters to hells bells and marches to the ground from the fans and inside the Millerntor the fans come together to give a excellent fan presence that you would never ever find in the world, never mind in England

The presence of FC St Pauli has inspired a huge range of fan groups across the UK in so many cities such as Manchester, Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Brighton and in Yorkshire. I asked the Glasgow St Pauli chairman Gary for more information regarding the Glasgow St Pauli group and their work in a interview.

"When we set up Glasgow St. Pauli, the first aim as a supporters club was to see how we could help communities that needed support.

We are delighted to say that in our first year alone, we have so far raised in excess of £10,000 for our chosen charities, providing invaluable support to childrens charities, homeless charities, victims of domestic violence and refugee support charities. This encapsulates what we are all about as well as FC St. Pauli: Against fascism, racism, sexism and homophobia. We couldn't have done this without the help of all our own supporters that has continued to build since our formation last year. 

Our motto is 'More Than Football', and we are also delighted to say that in our first year we have been able to work closely with FC St. Pauli to bring our idea to life, which is to take refugee children living in Hamburg to FC St. Pauli matches. This will now be one of our ongoing fundraisers as we aim to bring as many refugee children as possible to St. Pauli and give them this experience.

We have seen what we are capable of achieving together as a supporters club and the difference that this can make to so many groups and individuals, our focus now will be to build on what we have achieved in our first year and improve on this each year. We are here for the longterm and we fully intend on making as big a difference as we can. All in the name of FC St. Pauli

As well as our charity work we aim to make as many trips as possible to the Millerntor, with each new season bringing more and more trips."

All the St Pauli groups including Brighton and Glasgow St Pauli they put a huge effort into social, youth work and refugee travel to St Pauli games in order to spread the St Pauli brand and then this will be passed amongst the people who have been helped by St Pauli and then this sparks a chain reaction to contribute to important project in order to give back to the community and help as the fans are part of the board and backroom staff at the club from the for closer relationship as part of the fan club. The ownership structure in Germany is great for their football as they are always thinking for the fans as they have highest entity in the club which means that they get the final say on all the decisions that are made in the club which is something that isn't seen in England where every decision is made for the 'brand' or for good public relations.

So in conclusion FC St Pauli is a club that offers something completely different to the world of football as it offers a club that is made by the fans, for the fans. Although Hamburg St Pauli not May playing in the top division of the Bundesliga or have the biggest resources available in the transfer market but you have to give credit to everything else about them.

Credit: This article first appeared on bundesligachitchat.wordpress.com