Bert Reichel is still laughing. If, then only very briefly. For of course it is "disappointing" from germany's point of view, what happened in the preliminary round of the soccer world championship has been astonishing: germany is out, finished last in the group, and now the tournament is really about to start, also for FC habfurt.
As a co-organizer of the public viewing event in the FC stadium, reichel had already said well in advance that the matter would probably be settled with the K.O.-round trip takes off. It was worth it for the club "from the quarter-finals on", finally it was planned that also a little money into the club cash is spooled.
"It's not like you can change it"
But it was also clear to those responsible that it was not in their power alone: if germany flies out prematurely, both the dream of the fifth star and the dream of pocket money for the sports departments of the FC are gone. And what no one had thought possible came to pass. Reichel takes a sporting view of it, however: "you can't change it, can you?, he says. And in sports, there are always surprises. "That's the root of fubball, that you can't always see everything in advance."
Of course, without the german team in the tournament, the spectators also preferred to stay away from the public viewing at FC habfurt. At least in the eighth-final matches, spectator numbers were "in part catastrophic", says reichel "once we only had 24 people".
Financial disaster?
As a reminder, around 1,000 spectators attended the german team's last group match against sud korea (which, as is well known, was lost 0:2). With every successful further game, it had surely become even more, reichel believes. Nevertheless: "we are grateful, he says.
Thanks to a dedicated team of helpers, sponsors and a still promising program (see info box), reichel at least doesn't see a financial disaster coming for the club, which has the big screen contractually booked until the end of the tournament. "We do not go out with a loss. We manage to get away with a black eye." The decisive advantage is that the labor of the helpers costs the club nothing "these are all volunteers. If we had to pay our people, we had made a loss".
Good is also the balance so far, as far as the safety and the behavior of the fans is concerned, as the police inspection habfurt communicates. All the events were very peaceful," said preis, who. According to the police, things also went smoothly after the sudkorea match, after which the mood of the fans was not particularly good, as is well known. Nevertheless, no one let out their frustration in the form of rioting or aggression against other people. The police only supervised the event as part of their normal patrols, and the officers attest to the association's "very good organization", among other things, the FC habfurt used a security service and the traffic situation at the flood bridge was also well regulated.
Playstation on a big screen
Bert reichel is now looking forward to more exciting games. In addition, there will be a "foresight game" on saturday, 14. July, the opportunity for registered "gamblers-teams to use the big screen as a computer screen: there will be a playstation tournament with the hit game "FIFA 2018" is being played. So there is still a chance of winning the title…