We've chronicled before the Germans' love affair for the FBM. Perhaps its because they're very interested in the growth of soccer in the United States, or more likely, they really, really, love their beer.
St. Pauli, newbies to the Bundesliga top flight this season have a knack for showing creativity with beer (and thusly were a large part of our 2010 "Persons of the Year" award). In an April Fool's Day match against Schalke they used said creativity to voice their displeasure over the refereeing during a 2-0 loss where St. Pauli saw a two players sent off and a disallowed goal for offsides.
One enterprising fan must have took the referee's poor game for hostility to the sport and thought he needed a free beer to warm up to the game. Two minutes from full time one of the match's linesmen was hit smack in the back of the neck with a full brew.
The Footage:
Free Beer Movement in action?
The center official didn't find his colleague's beer bath all too welcoming and abandoned the match and the German Football Federation also didn't have a sense of humor (and throwing things isn't all that cool so we kinda, sorta agree) decided that St. Pauli's next match would be played behind closed doors.
They delay in the ruling, however, allowed "the Pirates of the League" (yes, that's their real nickname... which we suppose makes loads more sense now) to catch one more match before the ban took effect for their next home match on April 23 against Werder Bremen. St. Pauli fans had a chance to show their "disagreement" with the league's ruling unveiling the above banner declaring (the line below) "Shut Up And Drink - Back of the Neck".
Apparently they thought the linesman would've appreciated the effort after a long match of screwing them over.
Our take?
Beer is a weapon of good and not evil. The brew probably would've been better served washing down the frustration with the match officials' calling of the game.
But.... 1000 bonus points for that banner. Maybe the "hooligans" with two beers for "Os" should be the next Free Beer Movemnt shirt...
[H/T to Dirty Tackle]
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It doesn't work with beers for the Os, but how about "Brewligans"?
ReplyDeleteYeah... I like that as well!
ReplyDelete