The 30th BVB South Stand Championship was held on Sunday. There was a new winner. The Ultras were not there this time. There was a reason for that.
On Sunday, the South Stand Championship of the BVB fan clubs was held in Dortmund’s Hoesch Park. And lo and behold. At the 30th edition of this traditional tournament, there was indeed a new winner.
The winner was the fan club Geithe Borussen from Hamm. The relatively young fan club defeated the South Hesse Borussians 3:1 in the final. The 151-member fan club was formed out of a tennis club, but apparently can also play football quite well.
Thilo Danielsmeyer, head of the BVB fan project, has organised the South Stand Championship for 30 years – only once did the event have to be cancelled because of Corona. For him, it was the farewell performance. Because the social worker is retiring next spring. “That will be enough. Let the younger ones take over,” he said after the award ceremony. “It was a great South Stand Championship without any injuries and with lots of spectators. What more could you want?”
The tournament was held for the second time at the sports facility in Hoeschpark due to the ongoing renovation work at the Rote Erde stadium. By the way, the Borsigplatz, where the fans would have liked to celebrate BVB’s ninth German championship at the end of May, is very close by.
As is well known, things turned out differently. “But that was no longer a big issue,” observed Danielsmeyer. “Everyone is looking ahead. Even the fans.” But that had already been the case on the weekend after the missed championship. “When I started at the fan project 30 years ago, the fans would have reduced the city to rubble. Fortunately, that was different this time.”
However, his classic clientele from the active fan scene, for whom Danielsmeyer came up with the tournament idea three decades ago, were absent from the South Stand Championship this time. The reason. The Unity”, an ultra-group, was hosting its own tournament on Saturday, the August-Lenze Cup, and was also expecting guests from friendly fan groups from abroad, including Greece. So the date of the South Stand Championship on Sunday morning was rather inappropriate.
There will definitely be a new edition next year. Thilo Danielsmeyer will then only be present as a guest at the most.