TT No.24: Ian Hill - Saturday 16th June 2012; BSG Chemie Leipzig 0 RB II Leipzig 2 ; Landesliga Saschen;          Score: 0-2; Admn: free ticket from Leutzsch resident when walking to the ground ; Prog:1 Euro; Att: approx 800; Match rating: 2

 

 

I didn't know what was happening with the S Bahn system in Leipzig so I took a number 7 tram from the railway station to the Leutzsch station. From here it's a 10 minute walk. I was stopped on the way by a friendly old lady who said "fussball" and offered me two free seating tickets for the game. It looks like Chemie had done a leaflet drop to the local residents.

There are no bars or shops nearby and no clubhouse available for Chemie.

Programmes were available from outside the ground. It's a very unusual issue. 16 pages, A5 in size but the bottom two corners are cut off to make a V shape. In the "singing" end a fanzine was distributed but unfortunately I didnt get a copy.

The stadium is fantastic. Opened in 1015 it is very much olde worlde with it's brick and wooden stand, large two level terrace behind one of the goals and feeling of slight negelct. The ground does not have floodlights and would probably be closed down by ground graders in this country.

Despite the result there was a very good atmosphere from the Chemie fans and lots of banners etc on display. Red Bull brought no supporters - pathetic.

There is a small club shop inside the ground with various souvenirs on sale.

BSG Chemie Leipzig were formed in 2008 by fans of FC Sachsen Leipzig (known as BSG Chemie Leipzig for the majority of its existence). They felt that the club were going in the wrong direction in terms of the people running it and were losing touch with the rest of the fanbase (partly for political reasons).

The main body of "active" fans, predominantly consisting of the Diablos ultra group, moved away to form their own club to ensure that the famous name BSG Chemie Leipzig remained in the hands of the true fans and not some unscrupulous businessman. After all, BSG Chemie are one of the most famous ex-DDR clubs and their championship-winning 1964 season is extremely well-known in Germany. They started right down in the 11th tier, but still drew impressive crowds for that level. They played at the Willi-Kühn Sportpark at this point I think.

FC Sachsen Leipzig continued in the 4th and then the 5th tiers before finally going bust at the end of the 2011 season. BSG Chemie Leipzig were interested in taking over FC Sachsen's league registration in the 5th tier and therefore also the Alfred-Kunze-Sportpark (the spiritual home of the club). But then a few former directors threw a spanner in the works by founding SG Leipzig-Leutzsch.

SG Leipzig-Leutzsch took over FC Sachsen Leipzig II's league registration in the 6th tier Sachsenliga whilst BSG Chemie Leipzig, seeing that their plans to move back in to the AKS as sole tenants had been scuppered, merged with Blau-Weiß Leipzig and became co-tenants at the AKS. Since then they have both lived rather strange existences.

SGLL fans are mainly former fans of FC Sachsen (post-split) while BSG Chemie Leipzig mainly attracts youngsters from other parts of the city because of the political orientation of the ultras (not explicitly left-wing in a St Pauli sense, but not tolerant of any right-wing stuff whatsoever). Quite a few people are calling for the clubs to be reunited; but I'm 99% sure that this will never happen.

On a gloriously sunny day, RB wrapped the game up in the first half with two goals and were also helped by a very harsh sending off of a Chemie player.

A nice touch at the end of the game. The Chemie players asked for the security gates to be opened and walked into the crowd on the terrace and shook everyone's hand. I've never seen that before at a game.

I'd highly recommend a visit to Leipzig. There are a lot of clubs nearby and the flights with Ryanair are very reasonable. I was lucky to get the flight and a four star hotel for under £100.

 

contributed on 07/09/12