FC St. Pauli

F.C. Sankt Pauli e.V. is a German football (soccer) club. It previously played in the Bundesliga, but now plays in the Regionalliga (third division). The club was established in 1910.

Related Topics:
German - Football (soccer) - Bundesliga - 1910

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Home of the team is the Millerntor-Stadion near the Reeperbahn in Hamburg-St. Pauli. The current president is Corny Littmann, who is head of the Schmidt Theater on the Reeperbahn, and openly gay. The current trainer is Andreas Bergmann, who, prior to his nomination, coordinated the youth teams of the club. Apart from the football/soccer section the most important section is the female rugby team with numerous players from the German national team and five national titles the last of which was won in 2005.

Related Topics:
Reeperbahn - Hamburg - St. Pauli - Rugby - 2005

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St Pauli is perhaps most notable for it's fanbase. St Pauli games have a higher average turnout than any other team in the German third league, and often exceed turnouts of second-league teams. Subscriptions can even take on some Bundesliga teams. Independent studies say St. Pauli is one of the most famous teams in Germany, despite it's relatively low place in the German football leagues. Another study estimates the team has roughly 11 million fans.

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Many fans and especially many organized ones regard themselves as political, antiracist, antifascist and antisexist which has brought them into conflict with neo-nazis and hooligans at away games in the past. The St. Pauli fan scene traditionally participates in social struggles in the district of St. Pauli, such as those about the Hafenstrasse or Bambule. The centre of fan activities is the Fanladen St. Pauli. There are more than 100 registered fan clubs, some of them even outside Germany.

Related Topics:
Neo-nazis - Hooligans - Hafenstrasse - Bambule

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St. Pauli is also a worldwide symbol for punk and related subcultures. Their unofficial logo with skull and crossbones or their brown and white jerseys have often been seen worn by international artists such as Asian Dub Foundation. Turbonegro recorded a special version of their song "I got erection" with special German lyrics for the fans.

Related Topics:
Punk - Asian Dub Foundation - Turbonegro

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In 2003 the club nearly went bankrupt and it started fundraising activities, the so called "Retteraktion". They printed t-shirts with the club's coat of arms surrounded by the word "Retter" (rescuer). More than 140,000 were sold within within 6 weeks. They also organized a benefit game against Bayern Munich to rescue the club.

Related Topics:
2003 - Bankrupt - T-shirt - Bayern Munich

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The club also calls itself "Weltpokalsiegerbesieger" (defeater of football club's world cup winner) for the glory of their 2:1 home win against Bayern Munich, the then world cup winner, in 2002.

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In 2005 the club, the team and the fans initiated the "viva con agua de sankt pauli"-campaign which collects money for water dispensers for schools in Cuba.

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Notable former or current players of St. Pauli include:

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Ivan Klasnic, Zlatan Bajramovic, Thomas Meggle, Klaus Thomforde, Walther Frosch, Volker Ippig, Martin Driller, Bernd Hollerbach, Fabian Boll, Morten Berre, Yang Chen, Deniz Baris, Christian Rahn, Franz Gerber, Jürgen Gronau, Carsten Pröpper, André Trulen, Leo Manzi, Holger Stanislawski and Dieter Schlindwein.

Related Topics:
Morten Berre - Yang Chen

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