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When Segun Fayose, Head of Corporate Communications of
Multichoice, Nigeria, informed me that SuperSport, cable television channel,
which some weeks ago signed on the German Bundesliga, was taking some Nigerian
journalists to Germany to see how the Bundesliga worked, I looked forward to
the trip with excitement.

Having watched German football from a distance for decades, I
was thrilled that I was finally going to get a first hand feel of the game and
how it is organised. It was a one week trip but there was so much packed into
it that it appeared much longer.

The first thing that struck me about the Bundesliga when we
visited its headquarters in Frankfurt was the sheer youthfulness of its
officials. The men and women administering the league had age on their side.

As we listened to, Katja Beck, Events & Promotions Manager;
Kay Langendorff, its press officer; Kay Dammholz, Vice President Sales &
Audiovisual Rights; and Patrick Stuber, Manager Sales & Audiovisual Rights,
talk about the organisations, goals and landmarks achieved by the Bundesliga
over the last few years, it was clear we were listening to people who knew
their business.

That knowledge has seen the league move from an obsession with
what Mainz FC’s Haruna Babangida describes a power football to a more fluid,
easy on the eyes game that has clubs like Bayern Munich, Dortmund and Mainz,
winning over foreign football fans.

One thing that struck my colleagues and I about the Bundesliga
was the passion of the football fans. It was quite simply electrifying the way
they chanted support for their teams. On Saturday, October 30, 2010 when our
hosts took us to the Fritz Walter Stadion in Kaiserslautern to watch the match
involving FC Kaiserslautern and Borussia Monchengladbach, the stadium was
filled to overflowing with as many as 16000 fans standing to watch the
encounter.

I couldn’t help thinking about our senior national football
team, which plays to near empty stadiums whenever it takes to the field in
grade A international matches.

Another impressive thing about the trip to Kaiserslautern was
the large number of the aged who had come to watch the game. Put
conservatively, the percentage of fans over 50 years old who turned out for the
match should hover between 30-40 per cent. There was also a sizeable number of
children under 18 years of age coming with their parents to watch the match.
With both old and young turning out in the colours of their club, it was quite
a spectacle.

Electrifying atmosphere

Throw in the fact that day was the birthday of Fritz Walter,
Germany’s 1954 World Cup squad winning captain, who happens to be the most
respected player to star for Kaiserslautern, then you had an explosive
situation, one that inspired the players to trounce hapless Borrusia
Monchengladbach 3-0.

After watching that match, my colleagues and I looked forward to
an exciting time at Mainz the following day when the home club, perched atop
the table squared off against second placed Borrusia Dortmund. As we toured the
Mainz Stadium that Sunday, our guide assured us, just like our Bundesliga hosts
had done two days earlier, that the atmosphere in the Stadium was going to be
quite literarily, explosive. Pointing to one end of the stadium, he said:

“That is the West end of the stadium. It is here that you have
the most fanatical supporters. In that corner, you have 17 thousand fans
chanting non-stop. Whether the stadium is full or not, the west end is full,”
he said.

Indeed, before the game commenced, that end of the stadium was already
filled up with fans waving flags and mufflers of their darling club. When in
the end Mainz was beaten 2-0 by the more experienced Dortmund, the fans were
crestfallen. Such is the bond existing between the club and its fans that it
took a long time for most of the fans to straggle out of the stadium. Most of
them hung around the club house drowning their sorrow in the many litres of
beer provided by club management.