SchalkeUK

My only home game next season has just been postponed until 2020 - something to do with Norwich visiting Anfield on a Friday so my Tuesday visit is off. Keep the seat warm Kloppy!

What a start for nudge - 10 minutes down the road - it could almost be played in the Weser Stadium and called a home fixture and the 'visitors' would love it! Poor Tommy has a 4 hour trip - just to get to his game - longer than it will take me to fly to Hannover and get to Drochtersen - if I were at home that is, but I will have to try and find it on line on Canadian TV Nice Interview on ARD with the Drochtersen Boss!

The reply to that will have to come from nudge or Tommy or someone else in the DDR. Our present political system would take the 'commercial' way out and try and over-rule the original intentions and change the 50+1 ideal. In Germany it might not be so, but only those with direct knowledge of local politics would be able to accurately assess that. In the UK it would have been wiped out or ignored a long time ago! Even back in time I did suggest on a visit to the Parliamentary offices in Dusseldorf that their local member accept an offer to exchange David Cameron for Angela Merkel but he refused point blank to consider it. Clubs' histories have always been important in the local communities - although the coal mines are no more, we, as 04 fans, still regard ourselves as 'Knappen' and the entrance to the pitch from the dressing rooms is through what looks like an old mine shaft. Change that at your peril!! Recent celebrations confirm that the feeling and culture is still alive and living in the Ruhr and to confirm the respect for the immigrant population many of the pubs have gone alcohol free to allow for both sets to come together in community groups. As in the UK there are still small pockets of 'supremacists' who occasionally cause trouble and in Germany they often hang on to the football clubs where they feel they can create the most effect - standing in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin watching Hertha can sometimes be a little frightening and the banners of some of the Leipzig supporters are not always nice - the reason why I suggest that such should not be given too much prominence, but should never be ignored. No doubt Thea will have more to say....

“Liverpool and Schalke will work together on setting a rearranged date for the friendly in 2020.” So much for the August friendly - Liverpool have been given their first PL game on Friday 9th so our proposed game is off - give David time to sort of the mess!

I think the word you are looking for applies to all those with decent, respectful and honest intentions to do good - particularly in favour of those who are less fortunate both financially and in respect of fitness of mind and body - our word would be charitable. Many 'charities' do work which benefits mankind all over the world but sometimes (as in the recent problems with Oxfam) their intent is hi-jacked by individuals who take advantage or not all monies collected go to the correct place - usually the case with some countries who receive 'Foreign Aid' from other governments and it ends up in the banks of the corrupt politicians. There is little doubt that Gemeinnützigkeit is not the guiding principle in Red Bull's approach to Leipzig - club or community - but if there are enough decent people in the club they can use the money to do just that and some benefit is possible. However, one sin does not preclude retribution for another - how each individual interprets that- viz: turns a 'blind eye' to some of the things going on - is not set in law or stone. Our local young lady lost her life fighting for what she believed in and next week the area will be full of people remembering her work with loads and loads of Gemeinnützigkeit in evidence. Tomorrow there will be a big game in Chelsea which - whatever one's criticism of the 'hype' around it - will raise a lot of money for kids around the world with the UK Government doubling the amount raised. Whatever the outcome of our friend's research there has to be somewhere a little positive in it - if just one kid's life has been changed and improved or one old lady is helped to enjoy the end of her life more - Gemeinnützigkeit wins! Dear Jo and I used to play Ray Peterson's version of the old US Cowboy song 'Help stamp out Loneliness'. Cynics might find it can be worth a listen. Now I must pause as I have 20 kids waiting for their Saturday morning Lego Club to start! C'est La Vie!

Corporate money in football has totally changed the game from what it was even as recent as ten years ago. In some respects it has been an advantage to those able to 'sell their soul' and in others it has completely ruined the ethic of the game and created monsters both on and off the field. The BL rules were laid down to allow supporters and fans to have some form of control over their teams - just as Rugby League used to be in the UK. It is debatable whether Red Bull have broken the rules or not, but that decision has been fudged many times recently since Hoffenheim set a new sort of interpretation. Luckily the German International side has not suffered the same way as the English team has. Too many imports have seen potentially brilliant youngsters ending up playing in Germany whilst their places in the UK have been filled by overpaid - and often less able players. The German youth system is still working, but Clubs like 04 suffer by bad management decisions and the kids are now playing first team matches elsewhere. 04 has no present members in the German team - despite ex players almost making up half the side. Corporate money in Manchester, Liverpool, London and Paris has done that. If the BL rules had been firmly imposed then most of the Leipzig problem would not even be there - probably they would not even be in the top league but down in the third or fourth tier. My reasoning as set out above is simply that had Red Bull been stopped, the Leipzig problem would still have been there albeit in a much smaller part but the two arguments together have created an almost vitriolic problem and football is the loser. Strong leadership at all levels is not there at present and when one man tries he is often ridiculed and abused for trying - recent FIFA problems have highlighted that. Problem is we can all see what's wrong ( or so we think) and can do sweet nothing about it! If you think footy has a problem then watch the UK Parliament between now and the end of October. As they say, it's enough to make a grown man cry! One thing I have learned from this - my respect for the guy with the French backpack has been greatly increased

Accept the above, but Leipzig are competing at a different level with better results. If Dresden or Magdeburg were given the same financial clout and corporate support would they still be on a different plane?

There are still occasional problems and the article in the Local last September headed -'The wounds still hurt today' are in no way meant to link to sport and football, but there is an underlying minority who would create problems if they could and the dislike of Leipzig by fans based in what was the old west can still be used as a source of antagonism between the factions. If your article is to include the Social fabric around the BL then to ignore this would be to see no problems in Glasgow when the two main rivals meet!

Great post from our Saarbrucken colleague. it sets out the alternative thoughts which - agree or not - must be respected. Not sure how old he is, but mine is from a perspective of actually living through the 40's and the way in which we were 'brainwashed' at times into believing that what was happening was the fault of all the German people not just the leaders - a principal which recent polling in the UK is still prevalent in modern day thinking. Then it was fear which drove the thoughts - now it is misinformation (not a great fan of Donald, but his 'fake news' syndrome does often have some credibility to it). At least TomT has two or more theories to expound upon which could make his final presentation worth reading. Perhaps we might be able to do that online when he gets his Phd award! More contributions would be great, but I repeat - keep the comments respectful and based on experience rather than what you read! It is obvious that Rucks... has done just that!

This is far more complicated and devious in its inception - basically because most of the noise is being generated from outside the football community. It is easy to recognise the problems in the UK when Rangers and Celtic have roots in religion - which always festers intolerance, despite the concept being one of love and peace. Arsenal and Tottenham- indeed others and Tottenham - have a similar problem and you can trace the roots of animosity between Liverpool and Manchester to culture and corporate sources outside football. Many of the 'ultra' BL fan groups regard the BL in its present form as an inheritance from the division of Germany after WW2. That immediately puts Leipzig at a disadvantage and gives rise to old animosities amongst non-football communities. The rivalry between BVB and S04 is intense, but we sit together at games and cry in turn each season as there is never a continual dominance - nonetheless there are still a few hard-line 'supporters' who set out to create a rivalry of their own and try and involve others who would normally not want to know - the 'Nuremberg' syndrome from the 30's still lives in the German psyche despite the vast majority of the population hating what happened and the older generation still not able to come to terms with what they allowed to happen. It that seems incredible then talk to those who listened to Johnson and Gove during the referendum on Europe and now refuse to admit that they knew nothing about what they were voting for but still say leave rather than accept they were lied to and misled by corrupt politicians (corrupt in a political sense for their own ends rather than moral or financial forms of the word). Whatever happens in Leipzig or whatever they do is still regarded through the eyes of East and West thinking members of the community and media and they will never be able to get away from that cultural history. My own club suffers from the regulations which keep incompetent amateurs in charge when a corporate body could well be better - or worse, but we cannot even try to resolve it. This last season has proved the case and while Man City and Liverpool - like Bayern - prosper when finance is available, the amateurs take the cheap road to the future and the Tedesco's of the world are allowed to run riot through the club until it is almost too late. Red Bull have brought success and some stability to Leipzig and the fact that they have been allowed to do that is not used as a reason to complain about breaking rules, it is used as a reason to fester hate in an area and city which many ultras fasten on to. There is no logic in it and as hard as you may look, you will not find any or even a sensible reason for the animosity - no more than you can genuinely determined the reasons why Bayern and Leeds United have the same effect on the BL and Yorkshire - probably just because we like targets and they are easy ones to aim at. In Leeds case it was Ken Bates - in Leipzig it is Red Bull and in Bayern it is money they have that we don't have and all of this is - to use an old-fashioned English word - daft! As we get older we can easily mellow and when my classes had Manuel, Mesut Benny, Julien, Joel , Ilkay, Max, Leroy, Sead and others of different faiths and colours at different times I found it hard to put one above or in front of the other - whatever you think of them now, they were all super young guys who held sincere belief in the word respect. Whatever pressures were put on them they still hold that and the Leipzig problem may exist with some of the fans and media pundits, but it is not there between the Reus gang and the Poulson mates - even when Germany play Denmark. It is real in some quarters but look for the common ground and I believe you will find that to be at least 90 per cent of the relationships with the rest being unimportant - but only enough to keep and eye on and not ignore. Humanity does that at its peril. There are no simple answers - my young Muslim friends cry at times when ISIS is mentioned, but they do so also when Netanyahu's name comes up. Building on those sentiments would be disastrous - encouraging the anti-Leipzig campaign could seriously affect football in Germany for a long time - sadly, ignoring it could do the same. The 1958 British film could be your mantra - "Tread softly, stranger"

Another name to keep and eye on - watch out for Matthew Hoppe - the forward line will certainly improve if that happens! Too soon to say the deal is done, but

Don't think his Bank Manager would agree!!!

Hope Tommy and others in the Ruhr area keep their eyes open to se what is going to happen to young Fabien Reese. His time on loan is up, but his contract at 04 is almost over and he is far better that some of the present so-called strikers as well as already having International pedigree. Another young hopeful to be given away or - hope David is watching this - he needs to be quietly persuaded to re-sign. News here of internal dealings is not always readily available and 04 is very quiet prior to departure to Mittersill and the start of David's contract! Another question to be answered is why our ex-player and 04 favourite was allowed to leave Bayern without discussing a return to the Veltins?

Not had the pleasure! First chance may be on 6 August in Liverpool when 04 visits Anfield.

Nice move by DW but Jonjoe has to fill a huge space left when Thilo was sold to PSG. At least he's a year younger he will have more experience to come in the Under 21 games this week before moving and joining in the pre season get together in Austria and the beginning of July. Would be nice to see him back in Liverpool when 04 play against the Reds in August - at least he will still be wearing Blue!