The game is completely the same but the culture that surrounds the game in two nations couldn’t be any different. The first thing that will strike you with German football is that the home end is obviously full of home fans, the away end is full of Away fans but in between this, fans of both clubs can sit wherever they want and it’s not uncommon to have two sets of fans sat directly next to each other with no violence breaking out when one of the team scores and the fans celebrate. It’s strange to ever believe that this would be a thing in England. Many times I have seen a rival supporter in the away end and once they celebrated the fact the away team had scored they were instantly thrown out of the game and the fan would be lucky if he managed to come away without facing a crack of someone’s fist first.
When I took a trip to Germany in March to see the Bundesliga in action I was amazed at how the club’s ultras had to bring down their flags and banners the day before the actual game in order to get everything set up for the big game. Rarely flags and banners are even allowed into the stadium, never mind being supported by the club, the atmosphere is always electric no matter what the score is or what time the game is in, it’s none stop bouncing and singing from the fans and it’s what football should be about, none of this leaving before the final whistle because your team is losing, it’s about fighting until the very end because as we all know in football anything can happen at any time.
Also the beer costs considerably less than it does in England. You can buy a huge jug of beer for 5 euro and then you pay 1 euro, yes 1 euro each time you want it refilling! In England, you’re lucky if you’re paying less than a 5 for just one pint, plus the quality of the beer was top notch too, it’s not like it has been watered down for mass output. So if you’re a fan of all the above I would highly recommend that you take a trip to Germany to see the Bundesliga in action because I promise you, it holds more action than you could possibly imagine!