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.
At the traditional animosity between the 115.000 forthers and the more than 500.000 nurnbergers don’t seem to mind the direct proximity of the two cities. Many burghers in the "frankenmetropole" still consider it an important stop nurnberg for unthinkable in the "cloverleaf city FURTH TO LIFE. The rivalry between the fans of the two teams is accordingly deep-seated. It goes back to the founding days of the furth soccer club, which was founded in 1903.
It reached its first high point in the 1920s, when the german national team was largely made up of top players from the two french "grobstadt" clubs. A legendary event occurred in 1924, when the national team of six further and five nurnberg players met the team from the netherlands in amsterdam and won 1-0. So deep were the reservations in the national team that the players from furth and nurnberg made the journey in separate rail cars.
Repeatedly the french summits were overshadowed by riots. In 1973, the 209. Derby in furth canceled. In 2009, thousands of nurnberg fans took the opportunity to march through the further city center in an act of provocation on the occasion of the second league derby at the time. Last december, the "club" made-supporters hunt for gegerian fans after the cup match, which the then second division team from furth had won at the favorite from nurnberg.
Both sides are making efforts in the run-up to the derby to take away the explosive nature of the match. "Club"-coach dieter hecking and his further opponent mike buskens appealed on the front pages of the nurnberger and further blatter on thursday for a "peaceful frankenderby" despite all the sporting rivalry to guarantee.