Soccer & Society, 2013

Vol. 14, No. 2, 230–245, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2013.776470

Kicking from the left: the friendship of Celtic and FC St. Pauli
supporters
William McDougall*

School of Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK

This chapter will explore the cross-national friendship that has developed
between fans of Glasgow Celtic and FC St. Pauli of Hamburg. In accepting the
claim of Utah Phillips that the long memory is the most radical idea in any
country a historical approach to examining football fan culture and left wing
ideology is adopted. This examines the representation of both clubs in the domi-
nant discourses, the historical roots of both clubs and the touchstones of racism,
nationalism and commercialism that united fans in an authentic working class
internationalism.

Take me out to Germany,

Take me out today,
Take me to the Reeperbahn,
With the fans of St. Pauli,
Standing on the terracing,
We’ll back them all the way,
No Nazi scum will overcome,
The fans of St. Pauli
(Pirates of the League by the Wakes)

Representations of both clubs in discourses

The friendship developed between supporters of Celtic and FC St. Pauli is on one
level rather odd. The dominant discourses that present Celtic as one side of a sectar-
ian old firm divide – the ‘Catholic Club’ – and their relationship to the leftist
German supporters is unusual. Moreover, a friendship developed between a British
and German club who had never played each other is uncommon. Much of the dis-
course on Celtic is problematic though to understanding the relationship between
supporters of this club and FC St. Pauli. Viewed through the prism of one half of
the old firm divide, representations of Celtic can be rather generalized and some
authors find it a difficult subject to fully comprehend. Murray argued this is the
result of the use of the term sectarianism. He recognized that this causes confusion
but considered its use more appropriate than the use of terminology such as
racism.1 Discourses on sectarianism though are not only unhelpful but can be

*Email: William.McDougall@gcu.ac.uk

Ó 2013 Taylor & Francis

 Soccer & Society 231

reductionist. In discussing Celtic’s contribution to European football, Brain Glan-

ville describes Jock Stein – the legendary manager of the club – as a protestant
who had become a hero of a deeply catholic club.2 Jimmy Burns in Barca: A Peo-
ples Passion referring to a new breed of business taking over clubs contrasts what
he describes as the pragmatism introduced by Fergus McCann at Celtic in the
1990s with entrenched opposition. Burns claimed that the new owner wanted to
concentrate on turning the club into a commercial vehicle by diluting what are
referred to as the clubs twin traditions – Irish nationalism and catholic sectarian-
ism.3 In a more measured analysis, Kuhn recognized Celtic as representing the
Irish/Catholic community and though he states that the old firm were not responsi-
ble for sectarian strife he argues that antagonism played out on the football field
could prolong such tensions.4 As one of the few authors to recognize the high
regard in which some progressive and radical football fans in Europe’s antifascist
culture fans hold the club he maintains that this comes almost exclusively from a
symbolic significance to Irish republicanism.5
In some regards Kuhn is correct, however, it will be argued here that while the
symbolism of Irish republicanism does attract progressive support the bonds formed
between Celtic and FC St. Pauli supporters are stronger than this. To engage with
this, it is useful to explore the history of Celtic as one inextricably linked with that
of Irish immigrant identity in Scotland. Bradley in contrast to Murray argues that
anti-Irishness is the longest established racism in Scotland but points out that it is
rarely mentioned in discourses. Instead, he argues assimilation into an acceptable
Scottish identity while eschewing Irish roots is encouraged.6 He claims that Celtic
as a club ‘came into existence as the focus for the immigrant community’s broad
social and political aspirations’.7 It is this latter discourse of racism and assimilation
that offers a way into understanding the ties with St. Pauli fans separate from the
sectarian/old firm rivalry.
FC St. Pauli on the other hand are represented, in English at least, as a
‘kult’ club usually associated in football magazines and journals for their alterna-
tive and otherness. Sanderson suggests that the German media ‘promulgated the
misconception that all FC St. Pauli fans were anarchist punks.’8 Kuhn notes that
FC St. Pauli were turned from a football club into a radical myth predominantly
due to their radical fan culture as the management of the club remained essen-
tially conservative and bourgeois.9 In Germany, FC St. Pauli offered broadcasters
the perfect gimmick as they added colour to the league and were portrayed as
the passionate underdog.10 This representation was continued in English and
German speaking publications. This leftist status elevated them to a prominent
position among progressives in the UK and in Germany were their brand recog-
nition factor was only second to Bayern Munich.11 Griggs suggests that articles
on St. Pauli’s represented a utopian view of the club which he considers is an
embedded form of nostalgic idealism and resistant identity.12 This chapter shall
explore the similarities between Celtic and FC St. Pauli supporters outside of
the sanitized bourgeois myths, stereotypes and dominant discourses presented of
both clubs. It will be argued that the relationship is more complex, awkward,
richer and hopefully far more interesting than it is represented in attempts to
divorce politics and football. It will study issues of identity, working class cul-
ture, commercialism, prejudice and left leaning and radical ideas in football
culture.
232 W. McDougall

History of Celtic
Two events of cultural significance in German-Scottish relations occurred in the
summer of 2010. In the first Glasgow Celtic played in the Millerntor stadium in
Hamburg as part of the official celebrations of the 100th anniversary of FC St. Pauli
being in their words ‘not established’ as a club. The second event was the occasion
of the first German Pope, Benedict XVI, visiting Bellahouston Park in front of
60,000 which was covered by much of the British media. Commentators agreed that
this gathering at Bellahouston Park was very working class in character as distinct
from other scheduled UK stops.13 This could be viewed as a reactionary conserva-
tive gathering, due to the teachings of the church on numerous issues, though this
would misunderstand its significance. The visit by the Pontiff was to the same place
300,000 had congregated to see his predecessor. The West of Scotland Catholic
community was distinct in European terms. Drucker writing in the late 1970s
described the Labour party as something of an anomaly as it was the only party of
the left in Western Europe that could rely on the Catholic vote.14 Furthermore, this
was concentrated in towns and cities in the West of Scotland and along with united
trade union support provided apparently unshakable support and hegemony on the
left.15 The bedrock of this support was a community which was predominantly the
descendants of Irish immigrants and the gathering in Bellahouston Park was as
much a cultural as a religious event. This was as much about recognition of an
immigrant community and its assimilation on its own terms. It was this community
who created and sustained Glasgow Celtic and from amongst its number, lapsed or
otherwise, that supporters travelled to Hamburg for the FC St. Pauli celebrations.
This community was shaped by a number of key historic events which must be
briefly acknowledged if one is to better understand the current relationship between
FC St. Pauli and Celtic supporters.
The emergence of Celtic as an institution of the Irish Diaspora was shaped by
the Great Famine in Ireland which began in 1845 killing, according to one expert a
greater proportion of people than any other famine.16 The population in the census
of 1845 was eight and a half million. This fell to six and a half million within a
year and fifty years later was recorded at just over three million.17 By the 1920s,
there were around 650,000 descendants of these Irish who had settled in Scotland
from the influx of immigrants driven from their homes by poverty and starvation.18
The vast majority of these immigrants came from the nine counties of Ulster and
around two thirds were Catholic though significantly one third were descendants of
Scottish-Irish Protestants. This tide of immigration and human tragedy was over-
whelming for both the immigrants and also the host community and undoubtedly
caused tensions which are today described as sectarianism but were partly exacer-
bated by stereotypes of the Irish as the ‘white negro’ and as an inferior race.19 This
was magnified by the deep insecurity of the host community in the pre welfare and
rather fragile and open economy dominated by laissez-faire principles. The Irish in
Scotland were well aware that they were a minority community in a rather hostile
environment and by 1888 when Glasgow Celtic were formed were not fully inte-
grated into broader society. The Irish immigrants by the 1880s had founded their
own schools, churches, and press and were involved in politics, though this was
mainly through the Irish National League (INL) the predominant Home Rule
organization. The difficulties immigrants and their descendants confronted are
underlined by Devine who ascertains that Irish emigration to the USA reached
 Soccer & Society 233

economic parity (economically no better nor worse off than the society in which
they lived) in 1901. Irish immigrants to Scotland, however, did not reach economic
parity until after 2001.20 This gap would have profound effects not just in the
economic and social fortunes of these immigrants but in the history of one of the
principle institutions formed by the immigrants: Glasgow Celtic.
Celtic was formed in 1888 and was predominately shaped by the society in
which it was conceived. Glasgow in the late nineteenth century was a city with a
strong, radical politics and Smith argues that within this liberalism worldview,
nationalism, individualism and privatized attitudes were subordinate beliefs in a tra-
dition that could be internationalist, peace-loving and committed to self-organiza-
tion.21 This, Smith suggests, provides an explanation of why socialist ideas were
able to develop by building upon this tradition and why the religious divide was
contained at least until the end of the 1920s as the Presbyterian churches were asso-
ciated with Liberalism.22 In reconstructing a view of Britain before the 1920s, it is
useful to comprehend that each ‘conurbation’s industrial and social structure could
have a profound influence on the political life of the town.’23 Therefore, the liberal
and radical heritage in Glasgow and its effect in the formation of Celtic can be con-
trasted with other relatively successful clubs formed by Irish immigrants in other
Scottish towns and cities. Edinburgh Hibernian had as the name suggests a much
more exclusively Catholic, clerical and sectarian formation which Celtic never had.
The choice of the name Celtic was supported by the crucial role of the INL and the
agitation for Irish home rule. The INL was formed in 1881 and its branches, meet-
ings, fundraising activities and electioneering was an effective machine for mobiliz-
ing Irish support in Britain.24 Land reform in the 1880s was a key demand of the
INL and the activists sought to connect the Irish and Scottish demands for land
reform. Celtic suggested this commonality between Ireland and Scotland. The key
figures in Irish home rule were Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt who
was associated with the emergence of Celtic.
Davitt, a socialist with an industrial background in Lancashire was a frequent
visitor to Glasgow and was chosen to lay the sod in the centre circle at the new
Celtic Park ground in 1892 (ironically after Celtic had problems with their previous
landlord).25 The INL was supportive of the Scottish Labour Party formed by Keir
Hardie the same year as Celtic. The leading figure in the Glasgow INL was John
Ferguson a socialist and a Belfast protestant and his rise to prominence was a defeat
for the exclusive Catholic elements that were reduced to a minority status.26 This
division between an inclusive Liberal and progressive influenced majority and a
marginalized exclusive minority would be transferred into the club itself and would
resurface occasionally. There were attempts to form a Glasgow Hibernian but these
ended in failure because there was insufficient support for such a club.27 Along
with home rule, charitable purposes was a reason provided for the formation of Cel-
tic personified by the involvement of Brother Walfrid, a Marist Brother, who had
been involved in other clubs, notably Columba, which was both Irish and Scottish.
Bradley and O’Hagan point out the Marist view was in some respects fundamen-
tally different from the ethos of deserving and undeserving poor typified by the Vic-
torian tradition of self-help and the Christian ethos of Samuel Smiles. The Marist
brothers’ concept of the poor and charity was based on a belief in the dignity of all
human beings and a tradition of community effort and not individualism.28 This
allowed the club to be associated with charitable purposes and accentuated the
importance of community, albeit with an underdog mentality. This underdog status
234 W. McDougall

was sharpened after the Great War. There was some sympathy for Irish self-determi-
nation from John MacLean and at the 1919 May Day parade ‘The Soldier’s Song’
and ‘Red Flag’ were sung together.29 However, the ‘terrible beauty’ described by
W.B. Yeats in the emergence of the Irish Free and the subsequent civil war led to a
collapse in Irish political organizations producing stranded Irishman – eirennach
eigin – unable to go home again.30 In the late 1920s, with the decline in the status
of craft workers, who were mainly protestant, and a much tighter labour market
there was a growth in anti-Irish hostility. This had semi-official support when the
Church of Scotland published a report entitled The Menace of the Irish Race to our
Scottish Nationality.31 This antagonism from sections of the host community led to
the increased privatization of Irishness and Catholicism. Only the church and Celtic
remained as public expressions of this submerged identity as the community turned
towards Labour and the trade unions to fulfil their more immediate social and eco-
nomic needs.32
The Labour Party was associated with nationalized industry; unionization and
this broader context influenced the followers of Celtic who were predominantly in
the Labour heartlands of the West of Scotland. As Grant and Robertson demon-
strate, mining and shipyards produced a handful of extraordinary football managers
such as Shankly, Busby, Ferguson and Stein but they also produced hundreds of
thousands of socialists and Labour was for decades the dominant party for the
working class and the left.33 Billy McNeill, the Celtic captain and then manager
and a socialist compared Celtic’s greatest team to the old Labour party. He argued
that they could argue and fall out in private but showed a united front to outsid-
ers.34 These were themes permeating the club. Celtic from the 1960s was dominated
by the figure of Jock Stein who became immortalized in the clubs history by
becoming the first British manager to win the European Cup. This helped turn Cel-
tic into a club that could appeal well beyond the confines of the Irish-Scots commu-
nity. Stein had not only worked as a miner but had been a pit delegate and never
forgot his roots. It was recalled that in 1984 during the miners’ strike he chastized
Alex Ferguson for walking past collection buckets in support of the miners.35 Stein
combined the ethos of solidarity and communal success from his mining back-
ground into a philosophy for success on the football field. Celtic under Stein
became dominant in Scotland but his claim that Celtic did not just want to win but
wanted neutrals to be glad that they had won was in accord with the search for
acceptance by an insecure community. Success for a club steeped in an immigrant
working class background was never enough they required acceptance too but not
on any terms. In an unsympathetic account Celtic were described as a club to which
‘socialists have always more readily identified themselves.’ This is an over general-
ization but a fair one when it is recalled that McNeill, Stein and former players
such as John Colquhoun and Brain McClair were also identified as being on the
left.36 Even the small but growing middle class Catholic community still professed
their ties to Labour in the 1980s and 1990s with former directors Michael Kelly
and Brian Dempsey both having strong links to the party. Kelly claimed that Celtic
represented the Irish, defended the underdog, were anti-establishment and opposed
poverty, discrimination and stood for social justice.37 These would all be crucial
ingredients in the common bond formed between supporters at either club and pro-
vide a better discourse for understanding the mutual attraction of Celtic and FC St.
Pauli fans.
 Soccer & Society 235

History of FC St. Pauli

The history of FC St. Pauli has similarities but also stark differences from that of
Celtic. FC St. Pauli-Hamburg to give the club its official title is situated not on the
outskirts of a town or city but in the heart of a district of St. Pauli in Hamburg. St.
Pauli was traditionally a harbour-workers district. Traditionally Hamburg had a form
of local chauvinism and what Comfort describes as a reticence to identify with the
German nation underlining its title as the ‘Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg’.38
This was influenced by its international orientation due its trade connections with
the UK and the Americas. Hamburg, like the Clyde in Glasgow was shaped by its
experience of trade and work provided by the Elbe. Similarly to Glasgow the city
also had a liberal reputation reinforced by its lax attitude to implementing Bis-
marck’s anti-socialist laws.39 FC St. Pauli as a club was formed in 1910 only
around 20 years after the beginning of a great wave of industrialization. The club
was rather small and obscure and had little success from its formation and its fan
base did not gain a leftist reputation until the 1980s. FC St. Pauli have played in
the Bundesliga.1 on eight occasions and managed one semi-final of the DFB-Pokal.
(German FA cup) They were constantly overshadowed by the dominant club of the
city HSV Hamburg who won numerous German titles and also enjoyed European
success including the European Cup.40 The background of the club may have been
bourgeois and conservative but Hamburg itself and the St. Pauli district was not.
Hamburg was described as ‘the cradle of German socialism’ by August Bebel foun-
der and leader of the Social Democratic Party.41 Hamburg was a port city and the
dockyards provided St. Pauli with a strong proletarian character such as was devel-
oped in Glasgow with the predominance of shipbuilding. However, from the 1960s
the decline of the shipyards and de-industrialization led to a steady decline in St.
Pauli also mirrored in the decline of FC St. Pauli as attendances collapsed from an
average of 13,776 to 2396 in 1978/1979.42 This allowed a space to open up for a
left alternative to develop at FC St. Pauli which the club officials could not afford
to remove. It was the changes in St. Pauli with the development of the second left
which changed the club.
The second left in Germany had developed much as the new left in Britain and
the USA had but with some notable differences. This left rejected the corrupt prac-
tices and compromises of Social Democrats but also eschewed the Stalinism and
economic determinism of the Communist party. The social movements in Germany
of the 1960s and 1970s shared a strong antiparliamentarian bias and a grassroots
orientation.43 The old German left unlike the French and Italian left could not claim
to have been involved in the liberation or fight against fascism. The second left that
developed was therefore more libertarian, autonomous and mistrustful of the previ-
ous generation who had been responsible for the crimes of Nazism. The movement
was invigorated by the spectacular success of the antinuclear movement when activ-
ists stopped the building of a nuclear plant. This was achieved through direct action
and inspired an escalation of protests at Brokdorf near Hamburg in 1977.44 This
second left had a strong base in St. Pauli and the anti-nuclear protests of the late
1970s and 1980s infused this movement with new energy. Crucially, left move-
ments in Germany grew in the 1970s and 1980s and were still strong in the 1990s.
The concerns were diverse but included housing, women’s rights, civil liberties,
ethnic minority rights and immigration. Protest tactics were varied but included
peaceful and violent tactics.45 These issues and tactics influenced leftist supporters
236 W. McDougall

to varying degrees at FC St. Pauli. In the St. Pauli the autonomous movement in a
housing protest occupied the Hafenstrase. This would in turn lead to the reformation
of FC St. Pauli as an alternative club.
The Hafenstrase occupation led directly to FC St. Pauli becoming associated
with the left and becoming a ‘kult’ club but this was not a pre-planned strategy.
However, the strength of the leftist movements in and around St. Pauli certainly
aided this as did the weakness of FC St. Pauli as a club. Attendances at games were
low and these small attendances made it difficult for the club management to pre-
vent a reorientation of the club support especially as the club were soon promoted
twice and into the Bundesliga.1. Initially, there was also a small right wing group
who attended games though they became a clear minority. Not all of the new sup-
porters were anarchist, punk or radical but the space they created was welcoming to
a broad spectrum of fans. This included previous supporters of other clubs includ-
ing HSV as the far right increasingly attempted to gain a foothold in stadiums. FC
St. Pauli became in this regard not just the second team in Hamburg but an alterna-
tive club. Nevertheless, just as crucial was the protests staged when the club indi-
cated its preference to adopt a Sky-dome as their stadium. This galvanized support
and the defeat of these plans encouraged the leftist image of the club support still
further and provided further practical evidence to the view expressed by Sven Brux
that football, life and politics are all bound together, you cannot separate them.46 It
was this attitude that led Brux to establish a friendship with supporters of Celtic
and by the start of the 1990s some FC St. Pauli supporters had travelled to Glas-
gow. They made contacts, established friendships and a relationship was formed
between the Celtic fanzines, ‘Not the View’ and ‘Tiocfaidh Ar La (TAL)’ and the
‘Millerntor Roar’, an FC St. Pauli fanzine. The connection formed was not just on
a shared passion for football but also for philosophical reasons which included
opposition to racism and a refusal to divorce football and politics.47 It was this fan-
zine culture carrying articles on each other’s clubs which introduced Celtic support-
ers to FC St. Pauli and vice versa. There were a number of reasons for this
friendship. Sven Brux, who worked full time for the FC St. Pauli supporters, was
prominent in the relationship that was established. He recalled that in the past it
was always to England and Scotland that German supporters looked for models of
atmosphere at games.48 The singing in English of ‘Walk On’ at clubs such as FC
St. Pauli and Borrussia Dortmund is part of this tradition and was inherited from
Celtic and Liverpool. However, bonds between Celtic and FC St. Pauli fans were
deeper than this and were formed by attitudes to ‘nationalism and racism’ and
‘commercialization’. These were both the touchstones around which the common
interests of the two fans groups could meet.

The challenge of nationalism and racism

Both clubs in the late 1980s and early 1990s had contrasting fortunes with Celtic
arguably in one of the most difficult periods of their history as they came precari-
ously close to going into administration despite continuing to have a large support
for much of the period. FC St. Pauli who were enjoying the most successful period
of their history in Bundesliga.1 were attracting attention not just as a new fresh
team but also as the ‘pirates of the league’. TAL was formed at Celtic during this
time to respond to a perceived problem of racism. The catalyst for this was the
treatment of the black Rangers player Mark Walters by an element of the Celtic
 Soccer & Society 237

support including the throwing of a banana. In an article Tommy Sheridan, the for-
mer anti-poll tax campaigner, media celebrity and socialist Member of the Scottish
Parliament claimed he had been a Celtic supporter but stopped supporting them
after he became disgusted by the actions of the racist minority who abused Walt-
ers.49 The reaction of others amongst the Celtic support was to attempt to counter
this type of behaviour. These supporters considered that the Irish in Scotland had
been victims of racism, discrimination and bigotry. As a member of TAL argued it
was rather hypocritical, to say the least, ‘for second or third generation members of
that community to be the perpetrators of bigotry.’50 Therefore, unlike Sheridan these
supporters believed that it was their club created for and by their community to sus-
tain its self respect and confidence. Under these circumstances they were not pre-
pared to leave the club for others to tarnish. This image of Celtic as formed to
represent an immigrant community is a very powerful one and to use a cliché is
considered ‘more than just a club’. That this club is viewed by these supporters as
representing a minority community both strengthens and in some ways constrains
the actions of supporters. Anti-racism is one area in which some fans considered
they had not just the freedom to act but a duty to do so.
A common connection between many Celtic and FC St. Pauli supporters was
not only a contempt for racism but also a disdain for the nationalism of their own
state. For FC St. Pauli this was a wariness of the dangers of nationalism per se
from German history. This is officially recognized by the plaque dedicated to two
former Jewish members as well as the memorial stone for the victims of fascism at
the Millerntor stadium.51 For Celtic supporters, this distrust was evident in attitudes
towards British and Scottish nationalism. A survey by Bradley reported that Celtic
fans were ambivalent towards the national team with 54% having never attended a
Scotland game and only 3% always attending.52 Indeed little remarked upon in the
literature of the Celtic–FC St. Pauli friendship is the historical coolness towards the
‘national movement’ in Scotland and the symbols of nationalism, both Scottish and
British. They have been mainly unattractive and too bourgeois for the descendants
of the community who represent the Celtic support.53 Research by Boyle indicates
that Celtic supporters in the early 1990s had fairly negative views of the Scottish
National Party (SNP) and some associated it with links to Orangeism and Protes-
tantism and had stronger commitments towards the Labour party.54 Amongst
respondents in Bradley’s survey, 85% of Celtic fans voted Labour compared for
example with 33% of Rangers fans.55 Attitudes towards independence and the SNP
have changed yet Catholic hostility towards Conservatism remains. This was due
not only to most Catholics being traditionally working class but as McCrone and
Rosie explained was a result of the left-wing political attitudes of this group. Catho-
lics in Scotland, both practicing and non-practicing, were consistently more left-
wing not only in comparison to Scottish political attitudes as a whole but also to
Catholic’s elsewhere in Britain.56 They also surprising found that Catholic’s were
more liberal, the only exception being in attitudes to abortion.57 This leftist/liberal
stance then created a large space for a friendship to develop between Celtic and FC
St. Pauli fans which could be maintained on a personal rather than just at an organi-
zational level which was crucial as unlike St. Pauli many Celtic fans were not part
of a supporters group. However, many of these supporters shared a common world
view which tended to be working class, suspicious of nationalism, opposed to the
right and sharing a generally leftist orientation. The liberal stance was also an
important indicator of why it was more likely that Celtic fans would be tolerant and
238 W. McDougall

accepting of the FC St. Pauli alternative scene. Organized activities between sup-
porters of the clubs can be recorded in fanzines to an extent but there have also
been many fans travelling to games outside the now traditional FC St. Pauli-Celtic
event. This is hardly surprising as an independent left is likely to produce individu-
als who are uncomfortable with perhaps the overtly Irish nationalist support of TAL
or who perhaps find a German winter inconvenient!
For organizations such as TAL who had close ties to FC St. Pauli supporters,
racism and sectarianism were connected and part of the same problem. They argued
that for racism, organizations such as the National Front and British National Party
(BNP) benefited while sectarianism benefited loyalist organizations.58 They argued
that the difference between loyalists who were anti-Irish and fascists was one only
of degree. Fascist organizations such as the BNP did attempt to gain support in
Scotland by portraying their loyalist credentials and sold their paper for a time out-
side Ibrox, the home of Rangers Football club. The far right did attempt to mobilize
support among football fans with support for Ulster loyalists and hostility for Irish
nationalism. In London a loyalist march was protected by members of Combat 18
and opposition to a ‘Troops Out’ march in 1993 identified football hooligans and
demonstrated a connection between fascism and loyalism.59 Celtic supporters proud
of their immigrant identity were unlikely to find much support amongst the far right
particularly as their otherness eschewed a British identity. In 1995, while playing a
‘friendly’ in Birmingham, various groups including TAL, Anti-Fascist Action and
Red Action formed a defensive alliance protecting Celtic fans against right-wing
Birmingham fans and BNP supporters.60 FC St. Pauli with a leftist reputation and
representing an otherness were a target for the far right. These included from sup-
porters of clubs such as HSV and Hertha Berlin but most are associated with clubs
based in East Germany. The most notorious rivalry is with Hansa Rostock after
Rostock had become associated with anti-immigrant riots.61 Celtic, because of their
links to FC St. Pauli also became a target for the German far right when they
played HSV Hamburg. European football has allowed the further developments of
connections between sympathetic fans. Celtic Fans against Fascism, TAL and the
St. Pauli Fanladen were involved in an initiative with representatives of fans from
Juventus to discuss a common anti-racist agenda and the formation of a three way
anti-racist project.62

The challenge of commercialism

The growing commercialism of the McCann period at Celtic was controversial as
were some of the clubs other initiatives. Opposition to commercialism was an issue
for many Celtic supporters who had become active and forged links with FC St.
Pauli fans and there was scepticism that the attempt to dilute the clubs Irish identity
was connected to increasing commercialism and the rebranding of the club. Murray
argues that McCann for reasons of pride in his boyhood team rather than for purely
commercial reasons launched the ‘Bhoys against Bigotry’ campaign.63 Celtic for
their efforts were awarded a European Equality Award and an anti-bigotry award by
Glasgow City Council.64 Celtic in launching their mission statement provided tick-
ets for sellers of the homeless magazine The Big Issue and provided funding for
various charitable projects.65 Nevertheless, not everyone was convinced and it was
claimed by one supporters group that the club had failed to take a stance on Celtic
supporters who had been attacked by loyalists.66 This led to the claim in a fanzine
 Soccer & Society 239

that the failure of the club to challenge anti-Irish racism while claiming to be
opposed to racism was hypocritical, guided by commercial decisions and insincere.
It was argued that the campaign by the Club in reality was an attempt to create a
sanitized version of the club which was ‘made cosmetically acceptable and resold
to the middle classes’ with ‘working class football supporters with their banners,
songs and chants … considered an embarrassing hangover of a bygone age.’67 The
‘Bhoys against Bigotry’ campaign which urged fans to sing non-political songs also
led for further calls to diminish the clubs identity. Murray argued that while Celtic
should be proud of their Irish identity the popular ballad the ‘Fields of Athenry’
should not be supported by the club as it was political. However, Celtic would not
have been formed if it had not been for the influx of Irish immigrants from the fam-
ine years and the attempt to remove ‘politics’ from the club would be to deny his-
torical reality. At least one writer noticed a double standard that was operated by
‘deploring Irish songs sung at Celtic Park, as though the Boyne were in Banffshire
and Derry’s walls hewn of Grampian granite.’68
The introduction of all seated stadiums in the UK removed part of the character
and history of the club. Sven Brux was one who considered that the all seated Cel-
tic Park had completely changed the atmosphere. He contended that this had led to
a dramatic increase in costs which were pricing working class and unemployed sup-
porters out of the game something FC St. Pauli supporters wanted to avoid.69 The
club was also threatened by a bid by Kenny Dalglish, the former Celtic player and
Jim Kerr, musician and Celtic fan who were part of a consortium backed by Deut-
sche bank who wanted to take over the club. It was feared that if the club was
taken over by an institution then it would be irreversible. For opponents of commer-
cialism the inspiration for Celtic was St. Pauli and the model was Barcelona. This
model was used at FC St. Pauli and demonstrates that despite the connections
between both clubs, FC St. Pauli above the level of the fans had not permeated
itself into the consciousness of the most radical supporters as an alternative model.
Commercialism entailed not just the threat to the working class identity of a foot-
ball club, no matter how regrettable such a loss may be but also a step towards the
assimilation of the community. This process in the 1990s was matched by a grow-
ing popularity of Irishness itself during this period as a global brand to be exported
and sometimes as a caricature with U2, Riverdance, Irish theme bars and Guinness.
The image of a successful tiger economy in the south and its rebranding though
required amnesia of the more conflicted community in the North both inside and
outside Celtic park.
In 2001–2002, both Celtic and FC St. Pauli had successful seasons with Celtic
winning the Scottish title and playing in the Champions League and St. Pauli pro-
moted once again to Bundesliga. 1. This promotion was unexpected as the club had
the lowest budget in the second league, some 2 million pounds and had been
expected to be relegated to the third tier. Therefore, the club started the new season
with the lowest budget of any club, some 7 million pounds, (the second lowest was
12 million) and despite some good performances notably over Bayern Munich were
once again relegated. This led to a severe crisis for the club as they came close to
collapse. The following year the club were relegated further to the third tier of
German football with a record of 10 wins in 66 games and a debt of 2 million
Euros.70 A game against HSV was arranged and the Mayor of Hamburg Ole von
Buest was allowed to act as the saviour of FC St. Pauli despite his reputation as a
right-wing ‘law and order’ individual who was viewed in some leftist quarters as
240 W. McDougall

introducing repressive laws and closing down social institutions.71 The club avoided
folding but with criticism of the president Corrie Littman that the club was selling
its soul. These fears were understandable for support can change over time and is
not static. Organizations such as the Ultra Sankt Pauli (USP) and the Fanladen as
well as TAL recognized the importance of educating the support. Incidents of FC
St. Pauli supporters being approached, at an away game in Porto by two Celtic fans
who gave them Nazi salutes were highlighted to insist there was no room for racists
and fascists at the club. What disturbed TAL was not just the actions of the fans in
question but the lack of action by other Celtic supporters.72 This was part of a
broader trend perhaps as the stadium, filled to capacity every home game mainly
with season ticket holders, and the rebranding of Celtic brought in much needed
revenue to compete in Scotland and in Europe but also led to a change in the com-
position of the support at games. This was a model noted by FC St. Pauli support-
ers as a warning of what could become of their club. Increasingly the supporters
were influenced by the fan culture of southern Europe.73 This led to for a time to
the diminution of the links forged between supporters of both clubs but attempts
were later made to rectify this with the formation of the St. Pauli Celtic Supporters
Club.
The St. Pauli Celtic Supporters Club was the catalyst for reforming the links
between the clubs fans. A club of sorts had been established in the 1990s but activ-
ities had fallen away, and this was reformed in 2004 through social media with dis-
cussions on private message boards. It had become much easier for supporters to
follow each other’s clubs and activities. Therefore, just as social media allowed for
a transformation amongst progressive activists and pressure groups so it was also a
useful tool for football supporters to use outside the official structures of their clubs.
Advances in technology allowed supporters in the Knust to watch Celtic games
while FC St. Pauli matches were available to watch in Glasgow. To create stronger
links a FC St. Pauli-Celtic party was organized by the Fanladen which is now an
established annual event held in St. Pauli. One group influenced by these new con-
nections to FC St. Pauli supporters is the Green Brigade who have developed links
to the USP. The USP are associated with militant anti-fascism, anarchism and anti-
nationalism. The Green Brigade describes themselves as ‘politically left-wing, anti-
fascist and supportive of a united Ireland and an independent Scotland.74 They have
not shied away from controversy and Celtic were accused of ‘handing over some
prime real estate in their stadium to a militant group’.75 To claims that they are
being overtly political or provocative they could argue that it was Celtic PLC who
appointed a controversial Chairman, Dr John Reid, the former Defence Minister,
who had some responsibility for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was rather dis-
ingenuous to have such a politician as Chairman and then bemoan sections of the
support for combining football and politics. The Green Brigade is best known for
their colourful and sometimes controversial banners and displays in Section 111.
Nevertheless, what is less well publicized is their fundraising activities and work
with asylum seekers and immigrants and their educational events on anti-fascism,
including a talk by Willie Maley who fought in the International Brigade.76 The
Green Brigade and USP are both part of the Alerta network which caused difficul-
ties when Celtic played Hapoel Tel Aviv. Hapoel who are connected to Alerta are
on the left and anti-nationalist but have little to say on the Palestinian question. In
these circumstances, it was left to the Scottish Trade Unions Congress and a minor-
ity of Celtic supporters not associated with the Green Brigade to protest in favour
 Soccer & Society 241

of the Palestinian cause.77 This led to a disagreement between those who considered
that national liberation struggles, particularly over Ireland and Palestine, could be
progressive and those involved in USP who were reticent about criticizing Israel
because of the Holocaust.78
The twin enemies of the radical supporters of both clubs, racism and commer-
cialism, continued to be challenged. Following on from the formation of the English
Defence League (EDL), The Scottish Defence League (SDL) was formed claiming
to be opposed to Islamic and Irish extremism. The EDL and its Scottish offshoot
the SDL involved football hooligans who coalesced around support for loyalism
and hatred of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).79 Their one attempt at a rally in
Glasgow was rather pathetic and more threatening to both communities was the
spectre of commercialism. For FC St. Pauli there were substantial changes after the
club reached its first cup semi-final in 2006 and was then promoted to the Bundes-
liga.1 for its centenary season. However, even at FC St. Pauli the radical myth was
under assault from commercialism and the ‘Bring Back St. Pauli’ campaign was
organized by the self-proclaimed social romantics as a means for the left-orientated
support to renew itself. In 2009 Celtic were drawn in the Europa league to play
HSV and was followed up by another rare official event when Celtic played FC St.
Pauli as part of the Hamburg clubs official centenary celebrations in 2010. These
events helped rekindle memories of the 1990s when Celtic played at the Millerntor
and many fans established contact and forged friendships – political, personal or
both – during Celtics brief forays in European football. Despite the fears over com-
mercialism and of betrayal of the radical mythology of both clubs they were joined
in solidarity in the Millentor in 2010 at the centenary celebrations. The celebrations
appropriately were closed by Paul Sheridan of the Glasgow band ‘The Wakes’ who
described themselves as Irish-Scots and played a mixture of Celtic, Irish and tradi-
tional left wing songs such as ‘Bella-Ciao.’ Sheridan lead a rendition of German
and Scottish voices in solidarity singing ‘Walk On’ before a crowd of thousands
with the stadium transformed into a music venue for the day.

Conclusion
The relationship established between fans of Celtic and FC St. Pauli which appears
on the surface to be an unusual one is shaped by common bonds. The main dis-
courses on Celtic and St. Pauli of sectarianism and as anarchist punks respectively
fail to address the rich history of both communities. Both clubs were founded in cit-
ies with a perceived liberal heritage after periods of rapid industrialization. Both
clubs were also created and sustained in areas with a strong left and proletarian
character. Celtic were founded as a Catholic club by immigrants in a city that estab-
lished a reputation as ‘red’ and FC St. Pauli were formed as a bourgeois conserva-
tive club in the working class district by the same name which was ‘the cradle of
German socialism’. This history was crucial for the later friendship of both sets of
supporters as it allowed a space for a left to develop around both clubs and for rad-
ical ideas to germinate from this historical memory. The close links between the
Catholic community and the Labour party have been well documented and aided in
the assimilation of that community. However, by the early 1990s that community
could be identified as left leaning. For FC St. Pauli, the radical transformation of
the district and the support base of the club produced a support with an overtly left-
ist orientation. The Irish immigrant communities’ historical memory made them less
242 W. McDougall

susceptible to the nationalism of the host community and this was another common
bond shared with left leaning FC St. Pauli supporters who distrusted nationalism.
There were, of course, differences highlighted by those sympathetic to Irish nation-
alism. Nevertheless, the opposition of the far right to both sets of fans provided a
bond and it is interesting that despite the reputation of both clubs at different times
the far right and racism had to be dealt with internally. For FC St. Pauli, this was
in the early to mid-1980s when a small far right existed at the club and for Celtic
the treatment of Mark Walters was the catalyst for radicalizing some of the support.
The friendship was also useful to both groups in their opposition to commercialism.
To FC St. Pauli, it was a warning of what could happen in the future and for Celtic
it was an inspiration to fight back against this trend with the formation of the Green
Brigade influenced by the USP. Celtic had begun as a club partly for political rea-
sons influenced by the INL but became increasingly apolitical. FC St. Pauli began
as a non-political club but became identified as much for their fans political views
as their football. It is an irony of history then that a rather unsuccessful club from a
district of Hamburg has encouraged some of the descendants of Irish immigrants to
rediscover their roots.

Notes
1. Murray. The old firm, Xvi.
2. Glanville, Champions of Europe, 113.
3. Burns, A People’s Passion, 354.
4. Kuhn, Soccer vs. The State, 61.
5. Ibid., 134.
6. Bradley, The Gaelic Athletic Association and Irishness in Scotland, 201–2.
7. Bradley, Popular culture, Religion and Political Identity: The Case of Scottish Football,
4.
8. Sanderson, ‘Nie Wieder Faschismus, Nie wieder Krieg, Nie wieder 3. Liga!’, 70.
9. Kuhn, Soccer vs. The State, 136.
10. Sanderson, ‘Nie Wieder Faschismus, Nie wieder Krieg, Nie wieder 3. Liga!’, 68–9.
11. Ibid., 2.
12. Griggs, ‘Carlsberg don’t make football teams...but if they did’: the utopian reporting of
FC St. Pauli in the British media, 74.
13. Daily Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-poe/8007705/Pope-visit-
thousands-make-the-pilgrimage-to-bellahouston-park.html.
14. Drucker, Breakaway: The Scottish Labour Party, 8.
15. Ibid., 8.
16. Cited in Hayden, Irish on the Inside. 11.
17. Burrowes, Irish, 48–52.
18. Ibid., 212.
19. Dooley, Black and Green, 2.
20. http://www.Itscotland.org.uk/video/t/video_tcm4598634.asp.
21. Smith, Labour Tradition in Glasgow and Liverpool, 33.
22. Ibid., 33 and 49.
23. Ibid., 44.
24. Wood, John Wheatley, 12.
25. Wilson, A Century With Honour, 20.
26. Ibid., 13–4.
27. Ibid., 8–9.
28. Alternative view 12th February 2011. Issue 114, 28.
29. Burrowes, Irish, 320.
30. Hayden, Irish on the Inside, 102.
31. Bruce, Glendinning, Paterson, and Rose, Sectarianism in Scotland, 41.
 Soccer & Society 243

32. Bradley, The Gaelic Athletic Association and Irishness in Scotland, 71–3.
33. Grant, and Robertson, The Management, 17.
34. McNeill with Cameron, Back to Paradise, 70.
35. Grant, and Robertson, The Management, 18–20.
36. Murray. The Old Firm in the New Age, 170–1.
37. Ibid., 168–9.
38. Comfort, Revolutionary Hamburg, 8–11.
39. Ibid., 14.
40. Sanderson, ‘Nie Wieder Faschismus, Nie wieder Krieg, Nie wieder 3. Liga!’, 2–3.
41. Ibid., 27
42. Ibid., 45.
43. Mayer and Ely, The German Greens, 5.
44. Ibid., 5.
45. Karapin, Protest Politics in Germany, 6.
46. ‘Viva St. Pauli!’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 22, 19. http://www.webzoom.freewebs.com/tal-
fanzine/TAL%2022.pdf.
47. St. Pauli Celtic Supporters club’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 39, 14. http://www.webzoom.
freewebs.com/talfanzine/TAL%2039.pdf.
48. ‘Viva St. Pauli!’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 22, 18. http://www.webzoom.freewebs.com/tal-
fanzine/TAL%2022.pdf.
49. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2011/01/02/tommy-sheridan-claimed-he-
almost became the first catholic to sign for rangers (accessed September 8, 2011).
50. Kuhn, Soccer vs. The State, 173.
51. Sanderson, ‘Nie Wieder Faschismus, Nie wieder Krieg, Nie wieder 3. Liga!’, 8.
52. Bradley, Popular culture religion and political identity, 6.
53. McCrone et al., Left and Liberal: Catholics in Modern Scotland, 72.
54. Ibid., 73.
55. Bradley, Popular culture, religion and political identity, 13.
56. McCrone et al., Left and Liberal: Catholics in Modern Scotland, 91.
57. Ibid., 92.
58. ‘Campaign against sectarian attacks’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 20, 18. http://www.web-
zoom.freewebs.com/talfanzine/TAL%2020.pdf.
59. Garland, and Rowe, Racism and Anti-Racism in Football, 93.
60. Murray, The old firm in the new age, 168–71.
61. Karapin, Protest Politics in Germany, 195.
62. ‘Unity against racism’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 32, 15.
63. Murray, The old firm in the new age, 141.
64. Ibid., 143.
65. Ibid., 144.
66. ‘Campaign against sectarian attacks’ Tiocfaidh Ar La 20. Issue, 19. http://www.web-
zoom.freewebs.com/talfanzine/TAL%2020.pdf.
67. ‘Taking care of business’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 22, 6. http://www.webzoom.freewebs.
com/talfanzine/TAL%2022.pdf.
68. Reilly, Kicking with the Left Foot: Being Catholic in Scotland, 32.
69. ‘Viva St. Pauli!’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 22, 19. http://www.webzoom.freewebs.com/tal-
fanzine/TAL%2022.pdf.
70. ‘FC Sankt Pauli...selling their soul, losing their heart, splitting the fan’ Tiocfaidh Ar La
Issue 36, 9. http://www.webzoom.freewebs.com/talfanzine/TAL%2036.pdf.
71. Ibid.
72. ‘Stamp it out’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 32, 4.
73. ‘Viva St. Pauli!’ Tiocfaidh Ar La Issue 22, 18. http://www.webzoom.freewebs.com/tal-
fanzine/TAL%2022.pdf.
74. http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/the+Green+Brigade.
75. Sunday Mail 20th November 2011. ‘Board Games’, 90.
76. Celtic underground: the celtic football fan podcast
77. ‘Divisive “anti-Fascism”’ Tiocfaidh Ar La 2010 online issue no 1, 4–5. http://www.tal-
fanzine.com/Ezine/talezine1.pdf.
78. Ibid.
244 W. McDougall

79. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/10/john-cruddas-english-defence-league.

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