‘You will see the whole range of emotions: passion, intensity, love, and that is Dortmund’

Fans of Borussia Dortmund show their support as they wave flags in the Yellow Wall, seen prior to the UEFA Champions League semifinal first leg match between Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain at Signal Iduna Park on May 01, 2024.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

As one walks into the Signal Iduna Park in downtown Dortmund on a match day, they are certain to be greeted by the thunderous chorus of ardent fans singing one of football’s most notable anthems — You’ll Never Walk Alone. With around 81,000 supporters in Germany’s largest stadium lending their voices to the iconic song, it creates a fantastic prelude to the duel that is about to unfold on the pitch.

The home of Borussia Dortmund (BVB), in one the largest cities in Germany’s industrially rich Ruhr Valley, is truly a sight to behold. The club’s supporters, known as the Yellow Army, create an atmosphere that drives Dortmund players to always give their best on the pitch. It is one the largest attendances among the European leagues (third-largest after Barcelona’s Camp Nou and Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium) and serves as a great advertisement of the passion and emotion that the sport generates in Deutschland.

One needs to be part of the process to experience the frenzy that football can generate truly. Bundesliga prides itself on being the stimulus in bringing out the kind of excitement and drama on the football pitch that is unmatched across the ‘Big Five’ leagues. The intense rivalry among the 18 teams in the Bundesliga stems from strong regional affiliations of fans.

“Over the last five seasons, we have had more than three goals a game, which is better than any of our rivals. The Bundesliga is full of excitement and drama. You will have seen that last year in the amazing season of Bayer Leverkusen,” says Tom Julian, manager international PR of Bundesliga, while hosting a group of Journalists from the Asia Pacific (APRC) region.

The statement worked like a prophecy when Dortmund hosted defending champion Bayer Leverkusen in their mid-season clash at the Signal Iduna Park on a snowy evening when the temperature dipped below freezing point. The match took place after several days of preparation by the groundsmen, who worked overtime to keep the grass fresh using special lights and heating equipment.

When the match got underway, the home side was in for a shock as Leverkusen found the opening goal within 26 seconds after the kick-off. The visitor then doubled the lead by the eighth minute.

Instead of falling silent in disbelief, the Yellow Army grew even more vocal and kept cheering for the home side to hit back. However, Leverkusen rode on its good form to win the intense five-goal contest by the tightest of margins. Despite the result, it seemed like a football fiesta all along with the fans enjoying every moment of the contest.

“We are not obligated to win. We have to try hard for 90 minutes. That’s a typical Dortmund approach about how to enjoy football. You will see the whole range of emotions: passion, intensity, love, and that is Dortmund and hopefully you will agree after tonight’s game as well,” said Carsten Cramer, the managing director of Borussia Dortmund.

“Borussia Dortmund has one of the largest fan bases in the world but even the fans know how the club works. That is about getting the young players, the rookie players, and making them superstars,” Cramer said, delving deeper into the process of the club’s management philosophy.

“Dortmund is not the biggest city in Germany, it is not even a wealthy city and we are competing with clubs from London, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris, those are big cities with big clubs. That provokes us to deliver day by day with our own creative approaches,” Cramer said while insisting on the limitations of being a public club that is run by its members.

“We will never buy and hire a superstar but we will develop the young players and will enjoy seeing the likes of (Erling) Haaland playing for Manchester City. Of course, we would like to keep them as long as possible. As we are not owned by the Government or by any investor, we want to spend the Euros that we earn as wisely as possible. Our business philosophy is that you, at some certain point, will have to transfer some of the players,” the Dortmund MD stressed on the club’s well-developed academy that produced a line of stars over the years.

The club is trying to draw international partners and sponsors and also has India on its radar. “We do have the dream (of initiating a project in India) and from our perspective, India is a crazy country. People seem to be crazily interested in sports. Maybe cricket is still your main sport but whenever someone has represented us in India, everyone feels fixed and attracted and we are considering how to do it,” Carsten said, signing off.

(The writer was in Dortmund to experience “Football As It’s Meant To Be” organised by Bundesliga International and Sony Sports Network, the official broadcaster for Bundesliga in India).