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FC Union Berlin: A rebellious football club in a rebellious city

The first club from east Berlin to reach the Bundesliga

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FC Union Berlin: A rebellious football club in a rebellious city
FMH Editorial

BBC Sport’s Football Focus visits Bundesliga side FC Union Berlin, a “rebellious” football club from East Berlin with a special set of fans, playing their first season in Germany’s top flight 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Reflecting on the club’s journey early on during their first ever Bundesliga campaign in 2019/20, German football journalist Jacob Sweetman told to the BBC’s Football Focus:

Without the fans, this club is nothing. […] They bought themselves back from the brink and they rebuilt their own stadium. You can feel that when you go there. It belongs to them, not to anyone else.

Jacob Sweetman

For more info, read Union Berlin: The German fans who bleed for their club on BBC Sport.

See also

Pictures selection from Wikimedia Commons.

A photograph of Union Berlin fans at a match in the old East German league in 1985 - the stadium became a place where dissenter to the regime and the Stasi could gather (Source: Wikimedia Commons).
A photograph of Union Berlin fans at a match in the old East German league in 1985 – the stadium became a place where dissenter to the regime and the Stasi could gather (Source: Wikimedia Commons).
Supporters celebrate their beloved club's first ever promotion to the German top flight in 2019/20 (Source: Wikimedia Commons).
Supporters celebrate their beloved club’s first ever promotion to the German top flight in 2019/20 (Source: Wikimedia Commons).
Union fans helped rebuild their Stadion An der Alten Forsterei after crumbling terraces (Source: FC Union Berlin).
Union fans helped rebuild their Stadion An der Alten Forsterei after crumbling terraces (Source: FC Union Berlin).
Union Berlin supporters kept the club afloat in 2004. The supporters organised a campaign named 'Bleed for Union' where fans gave blood and forwarded the reimbursement to Union Berlin (Source: Wikimedia Commons).
Union Berlin supporters kept the club afloat in 2004. The supporters organised a campaign named ‘Bleed for Union’ where fans gave blood and forwarded the reimbursement to Union Berlin (Source: Wikimedia Commons).

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