Category: Sport

The 255. Circulation is a novelty. Never before have the two franconian rivals spvgg greuther furth and 1. FC nurnberg in the fubball bundesliga face each other. Saturday’s match revives a decades-old rivalry between two neighboring towns. But in fact, nurnberg and furth have long since merged into a single large city – even if local patriots vigorously deny this.

Anyone traveling from nurnberg to furth by subway, for example, would not even notice the change from one city to the other – if it were the "furth-stadtgrenze" station not gabe. It often takes years for new residents to even begin to know the border between the two cities – and even then, many don’t even know that they have crossed the city border several times on their way to work or to visit people they know. It is not only the political (city) borders that often run along the sidewalks, but also the distribution of the local daily newspapers "nurnberger nachrichten" and "further news" ends strictly at the invisible city limits.

For some, they are the personification of evil in the soccer stadium. For the others, the only preservers of good old soccer culture – and a protective shield against commercialization and undermining of the club system.

At least since the recent protests and insults against hoffenheim’s mazen dietmar hopp, ultras have once again been at the center of fubball discussions. The newly flared-up power struggle between the most conspicuous groups in the stadium and the DFB has many facets – just like the scene itself.