From German unification to the birth of the Bundesliga, this is the history of Germany's cult football club and its famously left wing fan base
FC St. Pauli is a football club unlike any other. Encompassing music, sport and politics, its fans welcome refugees, fight fascists and take a stand against all forms of discrimination. This book goes behind the skull and crossbones emblem to tell the story of a football club rewriting the rulebook.
Since the club's beginnings in Hamburg's red-light district, the chants, banners and atmosphere of the stadium have been dictated by the politics of the streets. Promotions are celebrated and relegations commiserated alongside social struggles, workers' protests and resistance to Nazism. In recent years, people have flocked from all over the world to join the Black Bloc in the stands of the Millerntor Stadium and while in the 1980s the club had a small DIY punk following, now there are almost 30,000 in attendance at games with supporters across the world.
In a sporting landscape governed by corporate capitalism, driven by revenue and divorced from community, FC St. Pauli demonstrate that another football is possible.
What People Are Saying
"Football has always been tribal, but this book shows how tribalism can be a force for good. Radicalism, social inclusion and joy all have their place on the terraces; there's more than one Marcus Rashford out there!" Val McDermid
"A fascinating history of the football club, and explain how politics, music, art and sport combine on the terraces in the fight against discrimination. A powerful and mesmerising book about football, and how it can be a force for good in an often corrupt and capitalist world' - FourFourTwo 'Fascinating and profoundly political" Cas Mudde, author of The Far Right Today (2019) and host of the podcast RADIKAAL.
"A well-founded club history" '11Freunde'
About the Author
Carles Vinas has a PhD in Contemporary History from the Universitat de Barcelona and has published several essays, including Skinheads a Catalunya (2004), El Mundo Ultra: Los Radicales del Futbol Espanol (2005) and Tolerancia Zero: La Violencia en el Futbol (2006).
Natxo Parra is a labour lawyer and cooperative partner at Col.lectiu Ronda. He has a degree in Law from the Universitat de Barcelona. He is co-author of The Concept of Radicalization in Jihadist Islam: Radicalization and Counter-Globalization (Tirant lo Blanch, 2015).