It was all set: The champagne in the fridge, the venue for the after match party. The sun was doing her best on this early May weekend. The veterans from Rotterdam 1974 played the warm-up game for the men’s team. Albeit, all this turned out to be premature. The ground, the old Ernst-Grube-Stadion, was decently…
1964 – 1974 – 1994 – 2004 – 2014 These 5 dates stand for important dates in the history of FC Magdeburg’s history, one of East Germany’s most popular and successful clubs, before and after 1990. After 1990 with an altered omen. In a series of articles, An Old International recounts the history of ‘The…
After 2 weeks of Champions League football, the international break provided some interesting insight in the state of the French and Dutch soccer teams at this early stage of the World Cup year. The insights can be summarized very quickly: France seem to have the core of a team that will surprise some while the…
Writing about football can be fascinating. Yet, the readers remain a species largely unknown. Using google analytics gives a valuable insight into how many people click in general on any blog post in any given time frame. Additionally, those tools help to see who has shared the content where. The backend at WordPress allows to…
Besides the financial problems, the lower leagues in Germany have to face up to another challenge lying in the years ahead: a shrinking society. While the East of Germany suffered a loss in population of around 1.5m since 1989, Germany’s overall population is shrinking according to recent research results. The result is a constantly changing…
In September 2012 a German magazine has published an interview with a supposedly homosexual footballer who asked to stay anonymous. So far, so normal. However, there are doubts that the interview took place at all but instead might have served a totally different purpose. The topic of homophobia in German football has been dealt with…
In the editorial of issue 10 of The Blizzard, Jonathan Wilson wrote of football entering its 3rd age. The following are a few thoughts on that statement. Football in the Age of Money In the editorial for issue 10 of the Blizzard, Jonathan Wilson wrote: Football has entered its 3rd age. It has gone from…
England, the country that gave birth to modern football hosted Hungary at Wembley in Noember 1953 and had to acknowledge that they had a bit of work to do to keep up with the Europeans. Read more →
Last month Magdeburg’s coach Andreas Petersen physically attacked his colleague by pushing him when entering the tunnel at half-time. A ban and a fee were the consequence leading to the question if anger really is a gift. Your Anger is a Gift? On one of their earliest singles – some would argue, one of their…
The German FA (DFB) have a new old president: Wolfgang Niersbach was re-elected at the general meeting in Nuremberg. Besides this, there was a lot to talk about. Like the men’s team, the DFB missed a chance to discuss some important issues. The current state of Germany gives those concerned a lot to think about.…