Nürnberg Sports & Outdoors

In 2006 Germany will host World Cup 2006, the biggest sporting event in the world. Nuremberg has been chosen to host five of the matches, four group stage games and one from the second round. It has a capacity of 45,500 and is home to one of Germany's most famous teams: FC Nürnberg.

I came here to see a game from what is considered to be the warm up tournament for the World Cup: the Confederations Cup 2005. Although it is mostly a friendly tournament, it consisted of the winners of every continental championship, as well as World Cup winners Brazil and hosts Germany. The game I went to see was a storming game between Australia and Argentina, which attracted a noisy crowd of nearly 30,000 people.

I was stuck behind a group of Brazilians who booed every Argentinian player, gesticulated angrily at the Argentinian fans every time they started chanting their country's name (giving the finger from both hands, not just one). They also cheered everything the Australians did, and sharing the same colours helped a lot. Argentina went 3-0, and so the Brazilians left and missed Australia's valiant come-back, bringing the game to 3-2 before conceeding a final, devastating, goal in the final minutes.

The ground is easy to get to, but the viewing area isn't so great. The stadium has that annoying olympic running track around the outside, meaning the fans are a lot further back from the action. The seats around the side are the best, but obviously they are also the most expensive. Still, it was a very enjoyable experience, and the local fans were gracious to the foreign teams happily picking up the banners of both nations.

Nürnberg FC is one of the Bundesliga football (soccer) clubs, and why not go and see them. They play in the Luitpoldhain area, and as you can see in this photo, the old Zeppelin Field is just outside their stadium.

September 9, 2007