The Südstadion is an easy 45 min stroll from central Cologne, maybe double that for a couple of journey-breakers? Recommended. My fave one (so far) is “am Brunnen” on Karl-Berbuer-Platz, which has this intriguing statue thingie outside it. Nice Kölsch as well.
I’m amazed how often I hear ‘Let Me Entertain You’ by Robbie Williams before a game here, again today (though thankfully here they don’t actually run on to it). As a rule it feels funnier the further down the pyramid the game is.
FC Bocholt (or “die Schwatte” – Schwatt is apparently a regional Westphalian version of ‘Schwarz’, ie because of the all-black kit) were one of this division’s most favoured teams in a poll of head coaches before the season began. They currently lie in 9th on 7 points, while Fortuna (having briefly been top) are 3rd with 14. The ‘home’ table would put Fortuna in 2nd, while the ‘away’ table has die Schwatte in 10th, hence the bookies favouring Fortuna at 5/4 (source: LiveScore Bet™️).
Tonight’s game under the floodlights is my first such of the season. These floodlights (if they are the same ones – it’s the same stadium anyway) play a minor role in Fortuna’s history: when they failed during a match against Darmstadt in 1982, chairman Jean Löring, a qualified electrician, fixed them himself.
The night is dark and full of terrors! But not, of course, for die Schwatte.
Interesting Fortuna fact – that I didn’t realise until today – they have a partially web-based ownership model (a bit like Ebbsfleet Utd in the UK). Ebbsfleet currently play in tier VI of English football compared to Fortuna in tier IV in Germany – which probably puts them only the equivalent of 1 English tier below Fortuna in terms of national ranking (see my discussion of the arithmetic of pyramid regionalisation: diary entry 15/08/25).
