The World's Best Village Football Club (And Why Everyone Hates Them)
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- Опубліковано 7 гру 2023
- Hoffenheim is a village of just 3,191 in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, yet TSG 1899 Hoffenheim - the village's local football club - compete in the Bundesliga and have twice qualified for the UEFA Champions League.
Hoffenheim climbed from the ninth tier of German football to the Bundesliga in less than 20 years, fuelled by the resources of owner Dietmar Hopp, causing immense controversy and becoming deeply despised en route.
In this video, HITC Sevens takes a look at Hoffenheim's remarkable rise, the village itself, and the investment and hatred of owner Dietmar Hopp.
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At least Hopp is actually a fan of the club he owns...
Fr, it cares about the club and played for them. It's not a soulless cash grab, it's not an ego thing, it's not even about buying a major club to deflect from a terrible human rights record and horrible repressive regime back home, it's for the love.
Yea this is the key thing. For all the moaning about the “game is gone” and the soul of football is lost, I’m not sure what’s not romantic about a wealthy fan of his small village team taking them to the top of German football and into the Champions League, is it just the wealth aspect of it? People who irrationality dislike anything to do with rich people?
TBH I just think a lot of the bitterness from German fans towards Hoffenheim and other clubs who aren’t traditionally big is misguided. How else are underdogs actually meant to rise up the leagues? Very very few clubs actually built their reputation and fanbase “organically.”
@jackwatson6887 that's not correct
@mikexstad1121 usually, if you think an argument is incorrect, you give your own reasoning as to why instead of hand waving it away.
I, for one, would like to hear the counter-argument because what he said sounded fairly reasonable to me.
Low expectations there mate
As a kid i always thought hoffenheim was a big German city because they were in the bundesliga with a large top league stadium then surprised when it was never shown on any German map because it’s tiny
Same😂
When I got to find out I was like WTF 😂😂😂
Do you live, or used to live, in Germany 🇩🇪?
Thought same from football club but more so from their stadium, that led to perception City had 100-250K+ population. And stadium fitted only small percentage of city citizens.
Im german and thought so too when i was a kid lol
Hey Alfie, I am German from the Rhein-Neckar region and your takes and perspectives on Germany are always very detailed, nuanced and accurate. Incredible how much knowledge you have, even though your not even from here. It is definitely true, that RB and Hoffenheim are both disliked, but RB by a couple orders of magnitude more. Dietmar Hopp is something like a hero in the Rhein-Neckar region. He pays for local sport clubs, charity and infrastructure, for example huge playgrounds for all generations, which are called "a la Hopp" (coming from the local dialect for let's go). He also invests a lot in medical research.
Hei bin aus Heidelberg 😂
Jo, Dietmar Hopp ist ein Segen für die Region
@@NEELZE99ist er nicht
@@TwiiisterrrSilencio
@@TwiiisterrrSo someone who invests in local youth sports and medicine is a burden on the region?
Nothing more calming and relaxing than hearing Alfie say, "So sit down, relax, and join me on a journey." 👌
To whom it may concern, the technology museum in Sinsheim is pretty nice indeed.
Alfie, I’m sure your schedule is packed, but could you possibly take a look at the new rejection by CONCACAF and CONMEBOL in rejecting a re-entry of North American clubs into Copa Libertadores and Sudamericana, while promoting international international continuity in the most recent Copa America? I know the answer is always money but I love when you cover these topics. ❤
As a life long American, the answer is simple. CONCACAF is not just USA and Mexico. If they adopted CONCACAF clubs into their competitions, they would have to be just as open to MLS and Liga MX as they would to Jamaica Premire League and Suriname Eredivisie. CONCACAF has 19 member countries with fully professional top flight leagues, and 41 members overall. It’s not as straight forward as making room for Club América and Inter-Miami.
It’s because the Concacaf is pure ass
I think CONCACAF just used the FIFA card as an excuse, they know Liga MX teams have been wanting to return to the Copa Libertadores for a while now, it doesn't make any sense for it to be "forbidden" by FIFA when they played the competition for almost 20 years straight.
@@MrRonald2796 it’s not all about what Liga MX in MLS want. There are 39 other countries in the confederation. Everybody has to work together.
The US MLS is a cartel that despises competition which goes against the very ethics of association football .
Tbh Hopp sounds like a good owner who cares about the club
He is. Smart too. People call him a bad owner only because he’s a rich boi, even though it takes insane amounts of skill to get a team like Hoffenheim into the Champions League in the time he did.
@@jackwatson6887 and i surpised that Hopp survived at some point when Hoffenheim became an bundesliga team
Exactly! Former player, years and years with Hoffenheim 💙
in every other country this would be the general consensus. But the fans are pretty protective towards 50+1 and in permanent conflict with the DFL and often their own clubs
It's not about whether he is/was a good owner, it's about him being an owner and buying success
Hey Alfie would appreciate you explaining what on earth is going on at Santos as they recently just got relegated for the first time in their history.
Simple,years in the making,poor administration,money mismanagement and a stupid president in charge,thats about It
I’m a local and consider myself a Hoffenheim fan from as far as I can remember. When I got into football during my time in elementary school, Hoffenheim was already a more or less established Bundesliga team and I never questioned the lack of history (well I mean, the name states the year 1899, why would a seven year old?). Of course, as I got older, I noticed that something was off with my favorite club, as virtually nobody else outside my region seemed to appreciate me being a Hoffenheim fan.
I understand that Hoffenheim may be lacking history in professional level football and that an artificial rise from Sunday league to top tear football by pumping loads and loads of money into a small village club can and should be criticized. I am not a huge fan of Dietmar Hopp, but I have to credit him for his patron spendings. For example, he built twenty huge playground/fitness parks in the area each worth around 2 million euros, he funds organizations helping disabled people and invests money into several environmentalalistic projects.
When it comes to football, he (and Hoffenheim) were one of the first ones to believe in women’s football, as of 2023, Hoffenheims women’s team is consistently among the top four clubs in the women’s Bundesliga. Furthermore, Hoffenheim has great youth facilities that bring up great talents that end up playing at world class level. Lastly, unlike other billionaire-owned football teams, Hoffenheim never spend outrageous sums on new players, rather focusing on a good scouting department. Those players included Firmiño, Alaba, Gnabry, Süle it Onana.
Up up up this should be the top comment
es ist auch wichtig einen bösewicht zu haben, das bringt ein wenig kontroverse in den alltag und kann auch mal spass machen.
ich finds auch relativ lustig wenn hoffenheim zuhause gewinnt und die fans "auswärtssieg" skandieren, weil sie sich ihrer rolle bewusst sind.
ich denke darauf kann man aufbauen, auch wenn ich viel lieber einen beliebigen traditionsverein aus der 2. liga stattdessen in der buli hätte.
achja und seit leipzig ist hoffenheim auch nichtmehr der unbeliebteste verein der liga. immerhin was.
Hopp hat unserer Mädchenfussball Mannschaft einen Bus gespendet und wir sind nicht die einzigen❤
I'm also Hoffenheim fan and proud. Best club in the world.
@@carlkontermann5637 das is ne super sache! also komplett ohne ironie. das find ich gut, wenn der hopp sich für sowas einsetzt.
in der bundesliga hat hoffenheim aber trotz allem nichts zu suchen. es sind halt 2 paar schuhe, ob man sich jetz für seine region stark macht, oder sich nen bundesliga-verein als milliardärs-spielzeug gönnt.
ich denke die beiden sachen muss man unbedingt getrennt betrachten. kann ja nich sein, dass man sich soziale akzeptanz mit geld erkauft.
As a German, I have no hate against 1899 or their patron Mr. Hopp. Nevertheless, it's fun as hell to visit their stadium for an away match and chant "Dietmar Hopp du Sohn einer herzensguten Frau" with the other fans of our club. Meddl Loide.
HERR WINKLAAA! BIST DU AM ARBEITNE?!
What does that mean?
@@jcxkzhgco3050 "you son of a kind-hearted woman" according to Google translate
Meddl
DIETMAR HOPP DU TIMO WERNER
This also speaks to my plan when I become a billionaire to balloon Marsden FC up from the Yorkshire Amateur League Championship into the UCL
Careful you’ll people protesting about you in the game’s world.
I thought they were hated because their sponsor is SAP and everyone knows how much pain in the ass one must felt when dealing with SAP.
Despite their success story TSG 1899 Hoffenheim will always be seen as a project of SAP owner Dietmar Hopp and not representing the true spirit of football in Germany. Only RB Leipzig is more despised among German football fans, who believe that private ownership should be limited to just minority stake - hence the 50+1 rule. Though there are some loopholes that both teams have exploited - there's a provision for owners like Hopp to bypass the rule if they've invested for decades (though Hopp had transferred voting rights to the club's fans in November this year, but doubt that the perception for the club will change). RB Leipzig on the other hand has it's voting members being merely members of parent Red Bull GmbH and the membership fee is hefty. Wolfsburg and the current leader in the Bundesliga Bayer Leverkusen are the notable exceptions to the rule as they were created as factory workers' teams long before the Bundesliga is created
The "Wolfsburg was created as a factory workers team" is just plain wrong. The club was founded in 1945. Volkswagen didn't start investing into the club up untill 1981. They only started pumping in real money, after their promotion into the Bundesliga and acted as a normal sponsor before. But when LLC got excluded in 2001, the DFB gave them their exception. That was, by extension, the major reason, why the patreon Kind thought, that he should be able to buy a majority state of Hannover 96, because he made a bigger contribution towards that Club, leading them from 4th tier towards the Europa League, then Volkswagen did for VfL Wolfsburg. So yeah, the DFB really fucked up, when they made that exception for that one club. This exception should not exist.
its not a league if one team wins it every season.
Ahh the true spirt where only 1 team wins the top league and regularly buys players from the 2nd biggest team
@@icebick1346It's not just about winning like in the english sportswashing league, but about tradition and history! ❤
@BurningJonas agree, we British Irish have sold our heritage and soul, the 'home' of football has sold out for premier league money and World hedge fund private ownership
Well said sir 👏
Alfie, can you make a video about What the Earth is Going On with Santos when they are going down to the second league in last match.
As a German I hardly have anything against Hoffenheim. I totally understand everyone that dislikes them because of all the plastic money Hopp brought in. But at least Hopp has ties to the Village and the Club. RB Leipzig are only there because Red Bull, a "random" Austrian Company, wanted to expand their web of Clubs into the European Top Five.
If some random wealthy Dude from Leipzig had invest in SSV Markranstädt (the Club RB bought so they immediately could start in the 5th Division, instead of the 15th or whatever our lowest level is) and had brought them to the heights of the Bundesliga I'd see them way less critical than I do with Red Bull Leipzig.
They only bought the starting rights, SSV Markranstädt still exists.
The Bundesliga has an issue in interest not only globally but also internationally. This is because teams like Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg or even Leipzig don't attract fans to visit stadiums especially playing against other smaller teams who are fighting for attention by local viewers.
How do you expect Darmstadt or Mainz to keep filling their stadiums when the away teams are Hoffenheim and Leipzig instead of Hamburg and Schalke? The Bundesliga is dying, thanks to those commercialised clubs
@SuperMyslayer Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg don't draw many spectators. However, this can not be said for Leizig. Last year they had more than 44k spectators on average.
@@Felix-st2ue they have one of the worst away fan supports. Today in Augsburg they brought less than 1K people. They don't draw people to the TV either as fans still actively boycott RB or just don't care for that club. I know many people who watch football every weekend but they always leave the RB match out. In short: they have no benefits for Bundesliga and need to be seized
Once again a great video. Even as a German, I was able to learn a bit more. But the fact that at 24:19, when you explain why Hoffenheim is so hated, you took a picture of my favorite club, VfB Lübeck, and confused us with Hoppenheim, that hurt. I was briefly pleased, albeit surprised, that VfB Lübeck somehow made it into your video, but I would have preferred not to.😂
Nevertheless, great work and impressive depth with which you deal with the topic.
And yes, we really don't like Hoffenheim here and only RB is even less liked. That's why I had to point out the confusion.
Lol who are you? you will never get 5% of what Hoffenheim have achieved.
But also Hoffenheim closed down there ownership and are officially part of the 50+1 in Germany since a week or two. Somehow just a small village club to hate now, but not a big investor sponsoring the madness.
@@user-cs2yz6wm3n Perhaps a marzipan magnate will step in to support the Luebeckers?
Sad to hear you don't like us after we had such a nice evening after the DFB-Pokal match with some of the locals in the Time Out Sportsbar...
Is the 'Hoppenheim' a Freudian slip? Alfie seemed to be pronouncing 'Hopp' and 'Hoff' much the same.
I'll always have a soft spot for Hoffenheim because of Football Manager hijinks. That side with Luis Gustavo and Vedad Ibisevic etc was fun.
Demba Ba as well
yep! @@Maclib_
Same. Late 2000's early 2010's Hoffenheim was so much fun in FM.
The Bundesliga has an issue in interest not only globally but also internationally. This is because teams like Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg or even Leipzig don't attract fans to visit stadiums especially playing against other smaller teams who are fighting for attention by local viewers.
How do you expect Darmstadt or Mainz to keep filling their stadiums when the away teams are Hoffenheim and Leipzig instead of Hamburg and Schalke? The Bundesliga is dying, thanks to those commercialised clubs
Fantastic look into the club and what its about. Part of my Family lives in the area and even before I knew of the Club itself, I knew who Hopp was since he financed a lot of infrastructure, like the school my cousin attended. So when my Family told me about Hoffenheim may be soon becoming a Bundesliga team, I started to get interested and am ever since. I've always had interest multiple clubs, from different leagues, but Hoffenheim is the one on top of my list, because of the close family ties I have with it. Going to the first match with my uncle when they were playing in Mannheim, talking to my aunt, grandpa and everyone else living there about it. Going to away games with my mum in the in Berlin at the Olympiastadion and the Alte Försterei. To me it's just a football club who got extremely lucky with the support of one man. But I have issues with people being so extremely hateful. It's fine and even normal to dislike them, but the way people get worked up about it is just too much drama imo. Hopp didn't help with his reaction to the hate either. It's all a bit too much kindergarden levels of dislike tbh. I'm glad you took so much time to make such an in depth video about it. Only critique I have is that I think you could structure the Video a bit more and make small pauses between topics, with a simple text over picture for example. Intro > Dietmar Hopp > the village club > ... and so on
From a non-German perspective I think that Hoffenheim is one of the few acceptable cases of rich investment, due to the investor having had ties with the club beforehand. It's not a foreign company, a celebrity, or an arab sheikh throwing hundreds of millions just because they can.
I can understand how much these rich investors hurt football, but Hopp is a much lighter shade of black. I'd rather have that than PSG, Newcastle, Manchester City, Botafogo, Inter Miami...
Exactly. It even sounds kinda romantic that someone managed to help his hopeless boyhood club to reach unreachable heights by his own wealth and effort. Its like a power fantasy dream of so many fans of weak clubs.
If mr. Hopp did it anywhere outside Germany he'll probably be considered a regional hero and national legend.
@@hanselsihotanghe still is that for the Rhein-Neckar region.
But you got all the 2nd league teams and snobs hating on them, because they don't want to cope with the fact that they're worse than a village club.
Was lucky to see Hoffenheim in 2019, but I must add that Heidelberg is truly a stunning place to visit! Has a great train journey from Heidelberg to the game and had the fortune of seeing the home team win
How is it lucky?
@@mortezz1268 was fortunate to see it I suppose. You a bitter bastard or something? Finding a coin in the bottom of a public bathroom is probably lucky for you.
Can you please make a video on what happened to the 5 different Bundesliga champions since 2000 and contrast what happened to them and why?
The SAP system was so hated by users in my former engineering company that we called it Hitler's Revenge. That its founder had nazi ties doesn't surprise me.
you're sugarcoating it. His father was a nazi monster
A video about Turkish football mismanagement can also be counted. Sensible pundits believe that Vincenzo Montella was only appointed to cover the management crisis in Turkish football, and that Stefan Kuntz’s era exposed a lot of problems. While we are having successes under Montella, we fear it is not sustainable.
Alfie did a video on Turkish football about a year ago
Fun fact: My old man played against Hopp and Hoffenheim in his youth. They beat them 3-2, according to his diary, which he wrote back then, not today. I also remember him making the rounds in northwestern Baden-Württemberg, trying to persuade one of the other clubs to merge, and I believe Sandhausen, who are from just south of Heidelberg, were his main target. To their credit, they stuck to their guns, although things have not been going too well for them since then. That my club loaned out their stadium to Hoffe during their first season is something I did not even realise, as I was living in the UK at that stage and only checked the Bundesliga table very occasionally. Aber was soll ich machen? Oymol Waldhof, immä Waldhof!
Ich dachte er wollte sein Projekt Bundesliga mit Waldhof verwirklichen, aber der Vorstand hatte nicht so richtig lust.
@@hansmuller3604: Die gleiche Geschichte erzählt man sich in Kaiserlautern UND Karlsruhe auch ;)
Ha, halt überall. Klar war er auch beim Waldhof. @@hansmuller3604
VFR Mannheim und Kack Barackler sollten fusionieren...
@@markus67erWarum longa? Der Waldhof spielt einige Ligen überm VFR, welchen Vorteil hätten die davon?
Video Idea: The expansion of the World Cup to include 48 teams, and it's impact, for better or worse, on the sport.
Very well investigated! From a natural born Hoffenheimer, TSG-fan and club member who had the luck to witness this unique story. 💙
At least to the club is run professionally and is sustainable now. Many village club elsewhere were totally abandoned once the local big shot lost interest or money after jumping 2 or 3 divisions.
*cough* Darlo *cough*
Alfie, can you do one for clubs that play in areas of outstanding natural beauty, like FC Pinzgau Saalfelden in Austria?
27:54 more like ‘No one likes us, we DO care’
Great research, great insights, great video!
While I don't like Hoffenheim, I do respect Dietmar Hopp. The guy uses his own money to help build his village. Like what Sadio Mane did for his village. And at least he didn't use Hoffenheim as a Marketing tool like what RB Leipzig did.
Another great video. Another commenter mentioned it recently, but it'd be nice if you had a quick bibliography showing where you learned what you did for the video and where we could read more. Keep up the good work!
Love your Bundesliga videos. Greetings from Germany!
What on Earth is Going on at Santos FC. The club which gave us Pele and Neymar Jr got relegated From the top flight for the first Time in their History and the fan reactions like vandalizing the car of John Stiven Mendoza, who played for Chennaiyin FC in the Indian Super League
I'm married to a Berliner, and one observation I've made, in my own anecdotal experience, is that not achieving yourself is not to be lauded. Self-sufficiency is. Furthermore, debt (though not exactly relevant here) is seen as a source of shame x
You married a sausage?
Hey Alfie, was just thinking that you should do a video about Santos, their recent relegation and how it came to be, what on earth is going on style (knowing you you've probably started on it already, but thought i'd mention it anyway). Loving the vids Alfie !
Just absolutely excellent content alfie. You spoil us with such great content, keep it up!!😅👏
You are really good at this honestly
I once had a conversation about this is Bonn about 10 years ago. The fellow was adament against private ownership and how the traditional clubs weren't being represented. I asked him "Then why have relegation & promotion or a pyramid. Why not just take the 18 teams lock them in and call it a day." He told me it wouldn't be competitive and fans should get opportunities to see thier teams play in the Bundesliga. He went back to drinking his beer and Germany hasn't had anyone else win the bundesliga other than Bayern since.
One is possible without the other. Just look at Heidenheim, Darmstadt, and many other clubs in past and present, who managed to get to Bundesliga without private ownership.
@espben360 no, they managed to have a visit in the Bundesliga. They will all get sent back down because they don't have the capital to sustain mistakes. You need money to keep up. There is a reason no other german club has won the CL besides in forever.
The Bundesliga has an issue in interest not only globally but also internationally. This is because teams like Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg or even Leipzig don't attract fans to visit stadiums especially playing against other smaller teams who are fighting for attention by local viewers.
How do you expect Darmstadt or Mainz to keep filling their stadiums when the away teams are Hoffenheim and Leipzig instead of Hamburg and Schalke? The Bundesliga is dying, thanks to those commercialised clubs
@SuperMyslayer usually they reallocate those tickets back to home fans. This exact thing happened with RB vs. BVB where Leipzig supporters didn't travel, and they reallocated back to home BVB supporters.
@@SuperMyslayerLeipzig has a really solid mid table TV pull.
25:44 thanks Alfie for teaching me a new curse word, another one added to my curse vocab.
29:33 Hoffenheim has been financially independent of Hopp for several years by now.
I remember when Hoffenheim first got promoted to the Bundesliga and their style of play was so exciting. Rangnick is an absolute genius and I think he should get his own deep-dive video on this channel. He is one of the most influential coaches of all time.
140K++ views but only 4K likes? Come one guys this is an awesome video. Extremely descriptive
Thank you for your work and insight on TSG hoffenheim.
Those former big german clubs who have been relegated like Schalke, Hertha, Hamburg or Kaiserslautern have been mismanaged for years and Hoffenheim simply showed them up. And their fans struggle to cope with that. Being a big club in the past with tradition doesn't earn the right to play first division in the present, they still have to play decent football. And if they can't even get back into the first division, getting beaten by small-town clubs like Heidenheim or Darmstadt, that just shows that Hoffenheim isn't the problem here, it is their own incompetence.
As for Hoffenheim, time will show if they can stay relevant in the Bundesliga in the Post-Hopp-Era, say in 10 or 20 years. After that long, if they stay, they earned it.
well in 10 or 20 years UEFA And FIFA will ended up get dissolved
They are already since long ago in the post-Hopp-era , the club is dependent on itself for years.
We shouldnt forget from which two companies (fan groups of the companies) most of the critics came from: Munich AG and Dortmund AG. (AG=Joint stock Company). I really dont care about fans of companies who complain about another company.
Edit: perhaps i should say that i am fan of one of the last real football clubs in the german professional leagues
You're a Heidenheim fan?
Last hint: my Club would even sell its soul to a russian Gas Company than giving up the "e.V." (registered association) in its name.
BxB und Bayern hin und her, sind beide trotzdem keine Plastikclubs.
24:19 That slide shows a picture of my hometown team VfB Lübeck wearing unusual blue instead of green from years ago. Boy was I surprised to see them here hahahaha :D
Need a scaled up picture of the Bayern Munich badge next time you say 'by in large' like you do when yo say 'anyhow' with eddie howe
LOVE this hidden side of football. ONLY ALFIE addresses this. Reminds me of the best ever radio presenter, Danny Baker! Knows not only football, but the stuff true football fans are interested in. GREAT stuff Alf. (For those too young to know, Danny Baker, along with Danny Kelly, started 606 on radio 5. Just brilliant listening.)
Even GREATER achievement than Wimbledon in the 1980's. I went to a 'Combination League Cup Final' of Spurs reserves against Wimbledon in the early 70's. 20 Years later, they were in the FA Cup Final beating a fantastic Liverpool team. LOVE these stories.
Alfie i know that you are busy but could you make a video about the top 7 or so greatest managers of all time and i know it will be hardest video ever to make
Being from Heidelberg, I can tell you that Dietmar Hopp isn't all too hated here 😂 To be honest, he is mostly known for his charity foundation which supports all sorts of causes in the region. I am not a Hoffenheim fan myself and understand why some people don't like them - but what's the difference to Leverkusen or Wolfsburg, who are even owned by German companies? The time gone by since? Fact is, that every big team relies on money.
Also other clubs like Schalke (Tönnies, Gazprom), Hertha (Windhorst), HSV (Kühne), Hannover 96 (Martin Kind) had other rich investors and just blew the money...
A good videeo as always Archie! ut I have to recommend to you to take a look at Europes worst capital when it comes to football, my Norways Oslo. A Oslo club has won the league title only once in 40 seasons! And that club, Vålerenga were today relegated to the 2nd tier after losing on penalties in the play-off final against 2nd tier Kristiansund. That means that tiny KFUM (YMCA) Oslo, after their fairytale promotion this season will be Oslos only top flight team next season. With a arena that holds appx 2000, while Vålerengas Intility arena holds 16,555 KFUM even had to play their final home match of the season where they secured their promotion ... at Vålerengas stadium because their floodlights werent't deemed good enough! And KFUM's arena most likely won be accepted by the FA to hold top flight football next season. So at deep look at Oslos football misery would be highly appreciated!
As a Stutggart supporter living in Heidelberg, and for most of the Bundesliga teams in the southwest of Germany, the Sinsheim stadium is a rather convenient 18th home game.
your club is a feeder club for munich
@@don_chan3638You think Undav and Guirassy are going to Bayern by the end of this season?
TSG > VfB. Every day, every time.
@dinohermann1887 no, but honestly given how Stuttgarts board has acted I'd be surprised if guirassy stays through January
@@user-cs2yz6wm3n the table says otherwise
Cool i from east yorkshire as well cool. Great videos
Oh Boy, here we go.
I'll just leave a comment for the algorithm and enjoy the show
Those traditional fans complaining about "plastic clubs" just taking away Bundesliga spots for traditional giants, is just the dumbest narrative ever.
I mean Heidenheim, Bochum, Darmstadt, Augsburg and Mainz currently play in the Bundesliga with way fewer resources, than the giants. It is just he utter incompetence of Schalke, Hamburg and Kaiserslautern, that these clubs got surpassed by Heidenheim and Mainz. Don't ever blame anything else.
The only dumber thing is Dortmunds Ultras acting as the moral instance, while their "True Love" club is actually just a stock cooperation, that has to focus on generating profits... That is, by the way, why the Borussia couldn't condemn the Superleague-conspiracy right away, because they had to ask their stockholders first.
As a final prove of the absolue bigortey: When Wattenscheid 09 did the same thing, Hoffenheim does now, in the early 90s under Klaus Steilmann, no one complained. Instead everybody cried, when this traditional club went bankrupt a couple of years ago, because they just couldn't survive without their patreon.
So yes, if Hoffenheim started their rise to glory 15 years earlier, no one would have had an issue with it.
Preach it lol. I hope more and more people realise how dumb the blind hatred some German fans have for smaller clubs is. It’s pretentious and just baffling to me in all honest truth.
@@jackwatson6887I partially agree with that statement. Personally I find Heidenheim, Bochum, Mainz and Freiburg pretty cool, but Hoffenheim, RB Leipzig and Wolfsburg for example circumvented the 50+1 rule with tricks and/or exemptions.
Yeah, just like no one had an issue with Wolfsburg
Mainz, Heidenheim and Darmstadt are a completely different ballpark compared to Hoffenheim. German fans do realize that those clubs deserve to be in the Bundesliga due to their good work.
But I believe the Bundesliga to be a special league that, compared to other big leagues, is still for the people. So we don’t need a club that hardly manages to fill their stadium (last game it was just 50% attendance) and barely ever brings any away fans.
The atmosphere in the Bundesliga is unique and just the thought of the half empty arena in Hoffenheim makes people furious, that Hoffenheim occupy a place in the Bundesliga that could be held by Schalke or Hamburg.
Thats the reason for 45000 in the second League...why is that??🤔🤫
Typical German football fan hypocrisy... A VERY local boy made good buys and financially supports a team he both life-long supported AND played for as a lad, and that's an outrage apparently! But Adidas, Allianz and Audi's combined 25% corporate ownership of Bayern is given an almost total free ride by the majority of German supporters, who by a strange coincidence are one team majority (near 23% surveyed in 2020) Bayern supporters... Hmmm. 🤔
Yeah. They’ll go through a lot of mental gymnastics to justify their bitter hate for Hoffenheim of Wolfsburg, while blushing for teams which financially dwarf the competition because they were good 50 years back, see Werder Bremen or Kaiserslautern. I don’t dislike those clubs myself, just find the level of hypocrisy on display when it comes to how German clubs are perceived is ridiculous.
Football clubs shouldn’t be owned. It’s that simple
I'm not sure you've thought that through @@flixrus9473
Hoffenheim bends and breaks the 50+1 rule the same way as RB, Wolfsburg and Bayer although the latter two have a decent reason to do so. Bayern on the other hand still adhere to german traditions and the fan majority power. They are just ahead of the other clubs in germany and even the world and do some of the best business in world football.
I couldn’t agree more, they life in stone age, those who say clubs shouldn’t be owned.
What a storied career you've had, Alfie 😛🤣 luckily, you're good at this video malarkey! X
Alfie, do you plan on making a video on Ipswich? The possible back to back promotions from the face of relative League 1 obscurity is, for the most part thanks to the wonderful work of the manager but surely the club itself has some interesting angles to look at regarding this momentum in form. Love from California.
It would be silly to make a video on a championship club any tine before may. The league is so unpredictable. I understand you're American but that league isn't the premier and b2b promotion is increasingly rare.
@@7sevenframes norwich fan spotted
@@user-qo8nm6sn3kthey’re not wrong though. Silly to make a video on possibly back to back promotions in December, when so much can change in the space of a few months, especially in the championship. If they failed to get promoted the story is “club too big for League 1 get promoted then do okay in the championship” which is true for a lot of newly promoted teams
@@johnwhittaker311 Their success is still remarkable and deserves some spotlight and even if they fail to be promoted they will still have finished in the top echelons of the championship while teams like sheffield wednesday crash and burn back down to league 1. I dont think this is a QPR situation from last season where they go from first in October to 21st at the end of the season.
Be a bit of a pointless video at this point of the season though. And it's not like Ipswich were a completely unknown club before now mate nor is it that unusual for promoted clubs to start well
Great Video!!!
Would be interesting to dive into why a country like South Africa - with its massive love of football, a World Cup, and a keen footballing population, has a horrendous league, no international stars, and the National Team sucks…BAD
Much like the rest of the country, the answer is corruption and apathy from the leaders.
because south africa is rugby country
@@don_chan3638if you are white atleast
Maybe corruption
There, saved you from making a video Alfie 💀
I'd say the closest we've got to that in England is currently Fleetwood Town who has only existed in their current form since 1995 when the team Fleetwood Freeport folded, the team then went from the North West counties league to league one.
Nah, Hoffe is a club like no other.
Thankfully now Fleetwoods owner is in prison they seem to be dropping back to where they should be.
Haha, I drive past that stadium all the time. If you are ever in the area, I suggest checking out that technical museum that you mentioned. You can't miss it: it's the one with a Concord and a TU-144 (the Russian copy) up on stilts. They had to put up a wall so as to keep drivers on the A-6 from gawking and getting into accidents, but you can still see them from the Autobahn though. It's probably better that the team didn't relocate to Heidelberg, it's full of yuppies that don't care about the Bundesliga..
This club gave us the brilliance that is Roberto Firmino. I’m thankful for that.
Hopp and Hoffman running hoffenheim sounds like wario and waluigi took over Walsall
More like they start to run AFC Sudbury or any club the most people never heard of before.
@@casualsuspect9878 Well, most people have never heard of Walsall. Only english people and people playing FM know it exists
@@casualsuspect9878 I was going off their names because when I was a kid I mis-heard his name and Hoff and thought he’d named a team after himself the same way people thought arsene wenger named arsenal. Again we’re talking about children here so honest mistakes but to also find out the other guy is called Hoffman Walsall came to mind when I thought of W names. 😂
25:09 talking about this topic the Regionalliga Nordost (one of 4 german 4th divisions) has the same amount of former german champions as the Bundesliga! The main Reason being more political then sporting, with the reunification of Germany leading to a big systamtic change in the Sport for the East German Clubs. Which were so destructive till this day east German clubs are in a big deficit.
I distinctly remember sitting in class and having the teacher chant „Hoffenheim, Hoffenheim“ when they first joined the Bundesliga and beat the local club Borussia Dortmund the day before. The class did NOT like that 😂
You must be in Cherry Burton. Have cycled through there a few times. I live up the road, on the coast.
I was also wondering which village it was as I live in same area east of hull. I'm curious
I'm german and i know many other germas would hate me for my opinion but as long as the investor isn't a sheikh, a investor can't make me hate a club
Also other clubs like Schalke (Tönnies, Gazprom), Hertha (Windhorst), HSV (Kühne), Hannover 96 (Martin Kind) had other rich investors and just blew the money...also the Bayer AG and the Volkswagen AG pretty much have their own clubs
That's barely bigger than the village where I live in western Ireland and my local football team has only played at junior level at best its incredible how a place so small could have a top flight team in the German Bundesliga how is that even possible
Billionaire investor.
@@fischlimonadeThat‘s why they’re despised a lot, because if it wasn‘t for Hopp they would‘ve need considerably more time (just like Heidenheim for example) to enter professional football here and not be in the Kreisliga (8th tier) anymore. It‘s basically a spit in the face especially for a lot of amateur/semi-professional football clubs in Germany like Illertissen, Verl, Atlas Delmenhorst, Rödinghausen and many more, that struggle to keep themselves afloat without any massive investor or something like that.
@@fischlimonade tbf, he's not a typical billionaire investor. He played for the club and is a fan.
@@dinohermann1887 mad cuz he is playing real life football manager
@@dinohermann1887so in germany, only large city teams are are supposed to play in the bundesliga? That’s what it sounds like to me
Still managed to lose against Molde in the Europa League R16 in the 20/21 season, were both matches were played in Germany due to strict corona restricts in Norway, another village team. And hey Solskjær and Haaland are former Molde players. +++.
Video on the Munich Rovers 1489 title charge please
Money didn't save Hamburg, Hertha BSC Berlin, Schalke... Beside money you need a good management. Tradition only means a club was successful in the past. Most of these clubs were set in when Bundesliga was founded.
Hoffenheim is one of my favourite respective German teams ever and I knew them during the 2000's and they have been progressing well despite a few downfalls ever since they were promoted during the 2007/2008 season,good friends!!!I am fully hoping for them to keep working hard and smart step by step till they would get their chance to challenge for the major honours despite they are sadly one of the most hated teams in Germany,good friends!!!LONG LIVE HOFFENHEIM!!!🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️🏋♂️
They're gonna go down in the next decade without their sugar daddy
Hoffenheim 💙🤍 such a special football club.
I say out of all the major cities in Europe Berlin is one that doesn't have a football powerhouse in its own country just to five the other end of the scale in German football
Possibly reflects the fact that Germany's economy is still powered by the cities in the West (Frankfurt and the Ruhr region also have great prominence) as a result of the cold war era partition of the country. I wonder how things would have worked out had Germany not been divided?
Bordeaux is another one. 1.2 mil population in the metropolitan area of Bordeaux and Girondins de Bordeaux play in Ligue 2, currently sitting in relegation zone
@@noreturn2231 Not sure if I'd include Bordeaux in that classification just yet... they've won 6 league titles (most recently 2009) and were only relegated in 2022; their current woes appear to be related to covid-19 and the collapse of the Ligue 1 broadcast deal (which, admittedly, would have affected other clubs in France too). Hertha Berlin, meanwhile, have been a bit of a yoyo club and haven't really established themselves in the 1. Bundesliga, whilst Union Berlin have only had a few seasons in the top flight.
Berlin isn’t really an economic powerhouse historically
Why Hopp is so hated is beyond me, because he is not a tycoon big guy a**hole. He's a humble old dude who wanted his hometown club in the first league. Without stupid amounts of money, he just wanted to help them get going. He could have spent like Abrahmovic (The guy owns SAP), but didn't. The focus was on developing good young players and also getting good young players from abroad for small money. What is bad about that? Jealousy.
Dortmund have been sucking for a decade now, even though getting these ridiculous transfer fees for Aubameyang, Sancho, Bellingham,... and instead of getting their sh*t together and improving, they whine instead. The refs, RB, the media, Hoffenheim, bad luck... Same goes for many other traditional clubs (many of which are not in the league anymore). They were told so often how great they are that they believed it themselves and forgot to put in the effort. That's why they hate Hopp. He put in a lot less money and was a lot more successfull. With a lot of effort.
Oh, and great video, of course ;-)
Hey mate make a video on
The Rise & Fall of Santos FC . As they got relegeted for the very first time in 111 years
I find it the German perspective a bit strange. My hometown is very poorly managed and we dont do well and lack critical infrastructure as well as we could use a new stadium. If i ever became rich my dream would be to buy the club and invest in it like Dietmar Hopp did w/ Hoffenheim. isnt that everyones dream?
The thing is: financial fair-play is big here. the 50+1 rule is part of that, because all football clubs were originally just that: clubs, i.e. recreational associations of the people, for the people. The C in many club names still has that (example 1. FC Saarbrücken), just like V in German (Verein = Club, with the word literally meaning "union", example SV Waldhof Mannheim), or, in the case of Hoffenheim, the G in TSG, which stands for "Gemeinschaft" (community). Accordingly, this is deeply rooted in people's psyche, and when a community-owned club is overtaken by another that is the plaything of a rich person/state/group/company, it rankles. Obviously, nothing can be done when German clubs are playing clubs from other leagues, but at least at home, people like to see these ideals still succeed.
And for those reasons, RB is hated even more, as they are just a plaything of a foreign company's PR department, wiggling through even more loopholes than Hoffenheim has ever found. Leverkusen and Wolfsburg are disliked for similar reasons, but at least, in their case, they existed, as Alfie points out, before things became like they are now, so they were grandfathered in, with Leverkusen actually being a proper workers' sports club organised and supervised by Bayer itself when it was founded in 1904, while in Wolfsburg, VW had been involved with the club for over 20 years.
The Bundesliga has an issue in interest not only globally but also internationally. This is because teams like Hoffenheim, Wolfsburg or even Leipzig don't attract fans to visit stadiums especially playing against other smaller teams who are fighting for attention by local viewers.
How do you expect Darmstadt or Mainz to keep filling their stadiums when the away teams are Hoffenheim and Leipzig instead of Hamburg and Schalke? The Bundesliga is dying, thanks to those commercialised clubs
Considering the Bundesliga has relatively cheap ticket prices, large crowds with amazing atmospheres and still is able to compete internationally would suggest that our perspective is rather sensible. I've studied in England and every single stadium I've visited was incredibly boring. We don't want that.
@@yaneyd93 And therefore the old clubs like Schalke, HSV and Co are going under because of all the nepotism and missmanagement...as if both clubs would survive today without rich investors like Kühne or Tönnies
Go and write something that makes any sense whatsoever and is in context with what I said and I might answer.@@ravanpee1325
The Rhein-Neckar Landkreis (county) is the biggest county in the whole of Germany with > 500.000 citizen...so to say "it's just a little village" when Leverkusen also has just ~ 50.000 citizen is completly unfair..
I will now pull for Hoffenheim.
I was so confused when I was living in Germany for a year and I went to Hoffenheim. It literally said Hoffenheim Village and I thought I was in the wrong place. It’s so tiny.
I get the criticism from the Germans but, I would much rather have a club like Hoffenheim doing well in the league rather than a club that’s been bought by American investors like Wrexham. Hopp is a die hard Hoffenheim fan and has done everything he could to make it a successful club. I’m not sure what the majority of clubs are like in Germany, but I’m sure a lot of them have at some point been owned by rich foreign investors, so why does Hopp get all the hate? As said in the video, Tony Bloom gets commended for the same thing here in England. There is a massive contrast difference in a Bloom/Hopp owner compared to a foreign owner.
No. Investors are scarce in german football
Have you watched the video at all? The part of the 50+1 rule? No, not a lot of German clubs have been owned by rich foreign investors. In fact RB Leipzig is the first one, that's kind of why it's a big deal...
@@yaneyd93 I know of the rule yes, but I can imagine a lot of the clubs have a foundation built on owners wealth. Only recently have Hoffenheim had this wealth which is why they get criticism over any other German club.
@@THISissockwormadness Well, you've imagined it wrongly.
If you are really think about it.... He did what everyone of us would did, invest in OUR Club from the village ang get them as high as possible
Absolutely, but this isn’t the Prem. People don’t want ownership of their club
@@Definitely_Melnyxmore like snobs with inflated egos don't want to get beaten by a village club 😂
Scotland have Ross County, based in Dingwall, the stadium can hold more than the population of the town (town by Scottish standards is a village by German, or English standards) population of Dingwall 5.5 k, but with a catchment area around the same size as Belgium, though there are less than 15k people in that area
Dingwall 😂😂
I have no problem with Hopp and Hoffenheim at all. I also dont have a problem with RB Leipzig.
I think Hopp is a great counter example to oligarchs, sheiks and american franchise collectors. He always was connected to the club, it was a steady support that grew with his own success, he laid solid foundations, does a lot for education and talent etc. etc.. He didnt bought a small club and hired stars for 2 billion dollars in order to win titles.
Same with Leipzig. For 2 decades, people were mad that there was no competitive club in east germany. No infrastructure, no modern facilities, noone with money to step in. Now, everyone is mad too but by everything you can measure and judge in an objective way, RB is doing an amazing job there!
I mean I dont need more Hoffenheims and Leipzigs, but for me, they are at least in the grey area of investors I can accept. you also must allow new traditions to grow and I dont think that a bad managed shit show club deserves the spot more because there is a tradition going on.
As a German, I abolutely dislike them, as this village has no place being in the Bundeslia, having been artificially put there and taking up a space of a deserving traditional club.
3:37 I’m really sick of people using someone’s family connections to bad people as a smear against them. As if this guy has any control over who his father was or his support for a horrible regime, nobody chooses their parents and using it as a character assassination to besmirch someone who hasn’t actually done anything themself to associate with n*zis is completely unfair. I expect better from you Alfie you’re usually much more reasonable in your criticisms of corrupt and evil people for their OWN actions not their family they just happened to be related to by accident
It was so predictable that Alfie has put this right at the front, and it seems like nothing more than setting up Hopp preemptively as the bad guy by an appeal to emotion. This was kind of a dirty move imho.
I wouldn’t really say that was critical of Dietmar Hopp, it was just a fact about one of his parents. At no point did Alfie say anything about Dietmar Hopp being a bad person due to his father being a nazi, so I don’t really understand your frustration friend.
boo hoo the privileged rich man is being associated with his nazi dad.. who cares? plus hopp has stated that he believes his father wasn't really guilty he was just a victim of the circumstances really 😢
Is this the first video you watched from Alfie?
Because in videos like these, when introducing the "main" character, he ALWAYS goes on a little digression about where they came from, what's their background financially/family-wise, etc., no matter who their parents are. It just so happens that Hopp's father was an outright Nazi, and there's no point in sweeping that under the rug just so that people feel more sympathetic towards him.
Did he talk about his mother?
I don’t understand the hate towards Hopp. He at least played for the club and is a lifelong supporter. Look at England for example, clubs are owned by random Asian or American rich men which, let’s face it, probably never been fans of the teams they own. Let’s be serious, doubt anyone believes a random Asian guy was a Accrington Stanley fan. And this Hoff situation is not even remotely comparable to RB Leipzig, that was taken over by Red Bull for commercial purposes, the owner is (or was, dead now) Austrian. I applaud mr. Hopp.
People are just jealous and forget their own rich investors e.g. billionaire Kühne in Hamburg, Tönnies for Schalke etc.
‘World’s Best Village Football Club’ and it’s not about Ross County? For shame, mate, for shame. 🦌💪
Out of Curiosity- Is there a fierce rivalry with Inverness or is it more friendly than other Scottish derbies?
@@JuliusSeizure-tw6mi It absolutely feels like a true derby when we play but I’ve never known or witnessed anybody scrapping over the El Kessocko. All banter mostly, we have special songs just for them such as ‘I’d Rather Be A Gyppo than a Tink’ and ‘The Caley Family’; they hit us with ‘The Wheels on Your House go Round and Round’.
@@jedross2136 That is hilarious tbf 😂😂
Greatest Strikers of All-time from 2000:
1. R9
2. Luis Suarez
3. Benzema
4. Lewandowski
5. Ibrahimovic
6. Aguero
7. Rooney
Kane, shearer,
Relegation is a tough business. Fans should first complain about their clubs inability to stay in the lower places of the Bundesliga than blame other clubs for it.
Didn't you see the video? The infrastructure needed to stay competitive is very expensive.
@@MatheusFernandes-xf4zmmany of these complainer clubs get much money, but they mismanage it massively.
@@Q-hv2cb The amount of money that clubs earn in the lower divisions is ridiculously low, just look at the technical level of the players.
Considering that the last attendance on Friday evening against my love Bochum was 16,500 (with 1,300 to 1,700 on the away end) I would say the support is already fading. However, this can also be a "Momentaufnahme" (picture of the moment).
As a sidenote, I remember quite well that Hoffenheim (or Hoppenheim as it is called every now and then) and Bochum competed for the services of Mr. Demba Ba and Hoffenheim paid double the figure that Bochum could pay. Even though Hoffenheim played yet second division football and Bochum Bundesliga.
Great, a traditional club wasn't able to get a Player because a plastic construct from a nobody-cares-town was able to spend double because of daddy's millions. What a football fairytale....
@@partlycurrent Money makes the world go round.... I also think that some of the players in Bochum aren''t here for the lovely view of the mining museum.
In any case Mr. Hopp mispronounced his project and therefore got more hatred than he would have gotten, if he would have played with open cards.
I believe it has a lot more to do with the fact that most people in the area are still fans of other clubs (KSC, Waldhof, Sandhausen, Darmstadt, SGE, VfB *shudder*, Freiburg, FCK, Mainz, even Sabrigge), so support is actually still quite small, but could well be growing. And I don't want to be mean, but maybe the VfL was not that big a draw on an off weekend, "graue Maus" and all. ;)
@@Ned-Ryerson If you dont have enough fans to fill a stadium of 30 k, you have no rights to play in Bundesliga. If you dont have enough support - ask yourself why. Hoffenheim is a parasite and everyone in the area knows what real clubs with great support are - all those you mentioned
@@Ned-Ryerson Sansdhausen has no real fanbase, I think.
Im English, maybe I dont understand but I quite like this story. I wouldnt be pissed at Hoffenheim, my Germam team Schalke would probably like their spot but the real baddies in the German league is Bayern Munich. They buy everybodies decent players.
As previously mentioned, I'm married to a Berliner and Hertha are my German team, and I will say that the club had Windhorst's millions. They were utterly wasted, and the club is languishing in the second tier thanks to how poorly the club is run x
And therefore fans are bigots, because they had their own rich investors like Windhorst (Hertha BSC) , Kühne (HSV), Tönnies (Schalke), Martin Kind (Hannover 96), etc. and just wasted the money
@@ravanpee1325 not what I said. Think on. Bigotry is a markedly different thing.
@@QueerChica Hertha also is in no way able to compete even in any major German league without the payouts of big investors..Union Berlin is a better example how to become succesfull
My old club played there until I was 19
Expected a Robbie Fowler pic after the white lines remark
Their story is the reverse to the story of Iran national team, the most delusional national team in the world. Currently Iran is facing what would be a hidden upcoming football collapse due to authoritarianism, corruption and mismanagement, yet many people still think Iran is a superpower because they have somewhat different DNA and they have many talents in Europe. However, there are signs it is arriving when Iran squandered their two goals lead to a draw in Uzbekistan during WCQ and the shortage of new young talents. Combined with the fact Iran has failed to win an Asian Cup since 1976 nor even advanced past a WC group stage, a video about Iran’s upcoming football collapse is worth mentioning and why people still think Iran is an upcoming global football superpower despite Iran has failed to live up to the hype.
Damn it’s the 3rd of the size of the village I live in not far from Alfie in the ER of Yorkshire
It's mental, imagine a premier league team from patrington or easington, cos that's the size village roughly of Hoffenheim
@@noeldarby1635 exactly mate I’m from Hedon and it would be mental having a prem club from here lol. I’m guessing you’re local as well mate? Where from if you don’t mind me asking
I want to know your village now as I'm east Yorkshire up the goole town lol
I hate dealing with SAP products at work, so that's why I hate Hoffenheim lol
Correction: 28:30 Wolfsburg wasn't owned by Volkswagen in 1998, they were their main sponsors. VW aquired 90% of the club in 2001 and the rest in 2007. Prior to that Volkswagen didn't spend a lot of money on the club or anything like that. VfL Wolfsburg spend some 17 years in the second division before reaching the 1. Bundesliga in 97' and playing international in for the first time in 99'. That's when Volkswagen decided to buy the club.