On the terraces: HSV ticket prices, confetti in Köln and East meets West

In a weekly Newsletter, Matt Ford keeps an eye on the action off the pitch in the Bundesliga and German football, explaining what’s going on from fan protests to finances.

“Our patience has its limits,” read a banner on Hamburger SV’s Nordtribüne last week - but it had nothing to do with the 2-4 defeat to Eintracht Braunschweig as HSV threatened to miss out on promotion back to the Bundesliga for a seventh consecutive season. Indeed, Merlin Polzin’s team remains very much in the race with four games to play, including a favourable-looking final home against minnows SSV Ulm on the penultimate day. But it’s precisely that fixture that caused a long-simmering dispute over ticket prices to explode, quite literally, away at Schalke this week.

Meanwhile, both ultras and club management saw the funny side of a gag aimed at the hefty pyro fines being leveled at 1. FC Köln by the DFB. And down in the Saarland, there were reminders of Germany’s convoluted modern history as 1. FC Saarbrücken welcomed Dynamo Dresden.

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Matt Ford's "On the terraces" newsletter will continue to appear every week throughout the 2024/25 Bundesliga season. Last season, the newsletter featured exclusive and in-depth coverage of the Bundesliga's private equity plans and the political intrigues at VfB Stuttgart, among other things. If you like what you see, please consider taking out a paid subscription.