The Cup, The Capital And The SGD

Olympiastadion Berlin mist
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35,000.

That figure means various things to various people. It is the maximum capacity of the Estadio La Romareda, home of Real Zaragoza. It is apparently the number of people who die each year in the USA from antibiotic-resistant microbes. And it is the amount of inhabitants of the market town of Beverley, just north of my beloved Kingston Upon Hull.

It is also the number of fans that followed SG Dynamo Dresden to the Olympiastadion in Berlin for a cup tie against Hertha BSC.

You probably  Continue reading →

China’s Favourite Non-Chinese Club

Tianhe stadium night
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The ethnic Han account for approximately 92% of the population of the People’s Republic of China. A couple hundred other ethnic groups are formally recognised by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), though possibly thousands more exist unofficially within the world’s most populous country. In his book “The Emperor Far Away”, author David Eimer literally and figuratively explores four geographic regions of China where the Han Chinese are outnumbered by their reluctant compatriots, and his work directly inspired this article.

The picture he paints is bleak. While the Han Continue reading →

On Bulgaria, Old & New

CSKA ultras
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The international breaks are usually moments in the Football calendar that bore the FBTG crew, partly because the fixtures are seldom particularly competitive, and partly because we’re not really patriotic folk. But the past 7 days have been interesting for a number of reasons. Sergio Ramos became the most-capped Spaniard to play for the national team EVER. Scotland emphatically got themselves back on track by firing 6 past San Marino. And another mouth-wateringly high score was overshadowed in Sofia, as members of the Continue reading →