2006

Andrew Aris

 

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We’ve settled in Erfurt in Thüringia to recover from the stresses of travel and video-blogging, and to meet up with Andrew, whom I met when I came over to Germany just before Christmas. He’s been organising a project here that’s also called Spirit of Football and contacted us when he found that we had the domain name. We immediately recognised our common attitude to the beautiful game — and so here we are to hang out and enjoy the football.

Stefan Beutel, Rot-Weiss Erfurt manager

Andrew invited Phil and me to his club, Rot-Weiss Erfurt, to have a kickabout, to meet the manager and have a chat about all things football. What we didn’t expect was that Stefan would also be a sharpshooter from the penalty spot.

I stand no chance

And, of course, if you kick The Ball, you have to sign it…

Stefan signs The Ball

St Pauli — not PLC

 

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In which we encounter the friendliest supporters we’ve met — as Trinidad and Tobago play a warm-up match against the unique St Pauli. Watch the video to find out why.

St Pauli’s in Hamburg, by the way

Some pictures for those of you who might be having trouble seeing the videos — perhaps your connection isn’t fast enough or perhaps you haven’t installed Quicktime yet. Either way, here you go:

One of our tickets to the game

We are warriors! The St Pauli crowd gets into the music

The St Pauli Sound supporters’ turntable mat

Radical through and through

But there’s a common cause — having fun

Courtesy of the St Pauli Sound Supporters

Find out more about the St Pauli Sound Supporters at their website…

Blinded by the light

 

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Beto keeps it up

Outside the Opening Ceremony is the usual media circus — more camera crews and presenters than you can shake a football at. In the midst of this electronic feeding frenzy was one Adalberto Sanchez, world record holder for bouncing a football on his head. His record is two hours, if you’re thinking of emulating his feat.

One of the features of South and Central American supporters is that they often buy the shirt of the host country as a show of goodwill. Watch Beto as he puts his Deutschland shirt on whilst bouncing The Ball on his head!

 

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We arrive at the Opening Ceremony

 

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The gathering has started.

The end of The Ball’s journey

For us, the journey has finished — at a particularly attractive wasteland outside the stadium in Munich — but for all the teams that take part, the journey has only just begun.

Let’s play football!

UPDATE: We’ve got promises to keep, so I’m adding to this post — sorry that it took so long for us to get this picture of you up on the site, Philipp. Here it is now:

Philipp — a little star

The things that divide us

 

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We cross to the east at Point Alpha…

Christian at work

…and realise that east and west are just in our heads.

Peace

It’s the Opening Ceremony today. A time to make friends. Bring it on.

Verld Kupp!

Philip Schlösser

 

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We should have read the signs!

Gymnasium Martino Katharineum

 

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We go in search of the first game of football in Germany — reputed to have taken place in this grammar school in Braunschweig.

I found a PDF (Acrobat Reader required) on the web which has the following to say about the game:

Die offizielle Geburtsstunde des Fußballspiels in Deutschland schlug in Braunschweig. Das genaue Datum ist unbekannt, festgehalten ist lediglich “Michaelis 1874″ - der 29. September 1874.

Der Initiator, Gymnasialprofessor und Turnlehrer Konrad Koch, sprach mehrfach davon, das Spiel im Oktober 1874 während eines Spielnachmittags am Gymnasium Martino-Katharineum mit seinen Schülern erstmals gespielt zu haben. Kochs Kollege, August Hermann, hatte sich aus England einen Ball besorgt und diesen einfach in die Schar der spielenden Jungen geworfen mit einem für Konrad Koch überraschenden Ergebnis: “Der große Eifer, der alle zunächst Herangezogenen beseelte, machte es gleich im ersten Winter möglich, ja nötig, zweimal in der Woche, am Mittwochund dem Sonnabend-Nachmittag zu spielen; dabei war die Beteiligung der Einzelnen am Spiel durchweg rege und unablässig”

Roughly translated, this says:

The official birth of the game of football in Germany took place in Braunschweig. The exact date is not known, but it is commonly believed to have happened on the 29th September 1874.

The Initiator, gym and sport tutor Konrad Koch, spoke often about it, saying that the game was first played by his students in October of 1874 during an afternoon break at the Martino-Katharineum grammar school. Koch’s colleague, August Hermann, had procured a ball in England and had simply thrown the ball into the melee of playing students, with (for Konrad Koch) the unexpected result that “the great eagerness for the game which followed made it possible - nay necessary - to organise regular games on both Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout that first winter, and the enthusiasm of those taking part never waned”.

The Ball

As the World Cup approaches, bakers whip up football fever.

While Chris scoffs his ball…

I eat my goal

Check out England’s victory at the 2006 World Cup…

 

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A quick behind-the-scenes look at how we get this site together while we’re on the road. Believe me, it’s not easy.

Our office

The trouble with this blogging thing is that doing and publishing both require time, and we just don’t have enough to give to both. So we muddle our way through, aware that one of them will suffer.

I usually work in my sleep

So we grab what time we can to edit and write — in this case after dinner in a cafe, as you can see. Ah, this gonzo journalism lark… how much easier it would be if we’d decided to simply write about what we’re doing — video seems to take so much more effort to produce that text.

Right, I’ll stop complaining now.

The Crack

 

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Well, we did eventually manage to have a bit of a knock-about in Ieper, but not the full-scale game that we had hoped for. Instead, we found Glyn, Peter and Matthieu playing keepie-uppie in the field next to our campsite. As so often happens when it’s underway, The Ball quickly became a source of fascination and a little puzzlement. Once we’d explained what it was all about, Phil and I donned our KVK Ieper shirts and joined in the kickabout.

The Team

Excess emotional baggage

 

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That there podcast file is the whole show — we’re on about 20 minutes into it. Check out the BBC’s Excess Baggage site for more details about the programme.

There’s also a great write-up of our project on The Guardian’s website and an article in German on the Focus online website if you’re into reading the coverage we get.

KVK Ieper Stadium

 

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We look for the legacy of the Chrismas Truce game with a visit to KVK Ieper and have a chat and a kickabout with the club chairman, Rik Verstraete.

Rik Verstraete, Chairman of KVK Ieper

A Colonel of the Grenadier Guards signs The Ball

Would these people have become great footballers if they hadn’t sadly died in the first world war?

Honouring the fallen of the first world war

 

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This video follows on from this one if you’re wondering about the abrupt start…

Arrivals, as it says

 

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Since we left you hanging over the edge of the White Cliffs of Dover in our last post, this one is meant to reduce your stress levels as the World Cup approaches. I’m sure the media are whipping the populations of their various countries into a footballing frenzies, and, to paraphrase the great Douglas Adams, there are enough stresses in the world without inventing new ones to add to the real ones. So we’re giving you a slight spoiler for the next episode.

We did make it to France (was there ever any doubt?) and the Phantom Fouler’s efforts to impede the progress of The Ball didn’t pay off in the long run — but more of that in the next installment…

The Phantom Fouler

 

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So The Ball has left Battersea Park and is now bouncing its way to Europe. Phil and I have reached the most iconic stretch of English coastline there is: the White Cliffs of Dover. Last time, in 2002, we kicked a long ball straight across the Channel to a beach near Calais… and the idea was to do the same this year. Until the (in)famous Phantom Fouler intervened, that is…

The Phantom Fouler in Xi’an

If you haven’t come across him before, he’s the Terracotta Warrior who ruthlessly hacked Phil down in Xi’an, providing us with the free-kick that took us direct to Tiananmen Square. You can watch the video in this post from 2002, or read the story in this post.

So then, will The Ball make it across the Channel? Will “fair play” win out in the end? Watch the next episode to find out if we make it…

The Ball 2006

They gathered at the Peace Pagoda, Battersea Park at 2pm to do battle. For some, it invoked memories of Passchendaele, Monte Cassino, Stalingrad, Trafalgar. For others it was merely a game of football. Jumpers for goalposts.

[You can watch the video of the game in the previous entry]

There were some old faces and some new, an interesting variety of footware and “football kit” and some shockingly white legs but the spirit and belief were high. After the necessary delays to greet the assembled worlds’ press (well…CNN) teams were picked and lined up Lights vs Darks.

Let the game begin

The Lights sprinted off to an early lead thanks to some excellent play by Phil down the wings and Chas, Shilton-esque, in goal by half time they were easily in front at 5-1.

The music of the fans provided by Andy on sax and Brian on flute

Whatever the Darks were drinking during the break (I believe it was Champagne) they came out a team transformed for the second half.

It was nip and tuck in the midfield with the Darks adding three goals to be answered only by one from the Lights. Phil then switched teams playing for the Darks and the introduction of doggy Maisie to harry the Lights attack saw the Darks draw level in the very last minute with a stunning effort on the half volley by Einar.

Gooooooooal!

So, to penalties and it was and Chas in goal for the Lights using the old Grobbelaar wobbly to great effect, saving three penalties. This just left Tom to score which he duly did, giving victory to the Lights. The post match analysis in the pub afterwards concluded that everyone had a very enjoyable day and it was a fitting send off for Phil and Christian on their journey to the World Cup.

Best of luck guys!

Kickoff for Germany

The Teams celebrate (photo by Andrea Daschner)

Many thanks to everyone who turned up at Battersea Park on Sunday — we love you all! What luck we had with the weather, eh?

Final score:
Lights 8 — 8 Darks
(Lights won on penalties)

 

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Full match report to come, but in the meantime, here is reminder of what Phil had to say in 2002 about the reason we do this:

The Football Association itself grew from a small group of players who, tired of the broken arms, endless arguments (not to mention endless pitches) drew up some rules to level the stakes. The evening of that first game, they made this toast — “Success to Football, irrespective of class and creed”. We will be adding “sex” (don’t you mean “gender”? - ed.) and “talent” to the list, and generally getting right into this footballing occasion.

So the game in Battersea Park will honour the FA and mark the start of our journey to the World Cup, the very pinnacle of footballing excellence. Just grab your footballs and join in at the other end of the scale.

After all is done, football will remain.