FCSP amateur football: meet FCSP IV!!!

2017 squad, we have more recent stuff but we fell for this one 🙂 ©️ Stefan Groenveld

Been almost a year since the last one but lockdown and the complete halt of everything broke the Liga 2 survival routine and gave space to some more creative thinking ^ ^ As soon as the “hey, do you remember this amateur department series” thought hit home, target was locked almost immediatelly. We’re watching them carefully for some time now, impressed by their achievements in and out of the pitch, it’s an honor and a privilege having with us the Grassroots Legends of FCSP IV!!!

 

From the moment that we got the OK (didn’t take long 🙂) there was a really good feeling about this, a feeling that was completely vindicated when (finally 😆) stuff from Hamburg started flooding in (lots of history gold in the form of pictures in here). LOTS of thanks to Jannick and everyone else involved for taking the time to deal seriously (😆) with this one, below you will find the answers to our questions, some of them were silly but all of them were answered, enjoy 😎

OK, we know three things: a) founded in 1986, b) slaves of beer and c) has been for years the home of Hamburg Grasroots Football Supreme Executioner, Kriller. Could you share with us a few things about the story so far?

1986

a) Founded 1986 – some guys of the “Hafenstraße” which played in the “Stadtpark” wanted to play football in a club and founded the 4th of St Pauli. One of these guys were our present chairman of the board Roger Hasenbein

b) Astra & Oregano (SES: !?!) are the famous things to do after training. 

c) Well, Kriller, what shall we say? Everybody knows him inside of St Pauli and every opposing player will not forget Kriller for the rest of his life. Kriller was a killer as header and in slide tackles also in training sessions. Kriller played from 2002 till 2017 in the 4th team scored a lot of goals but in the last season he scored the first time outside of the box (as far as I remember). I don´t know how often he came directly from Jolly Roger to a game but most probably more than once.

Rumours say he became captain in order to protect himself from red cards. In honor of his dedication and benefits in drinking beer we grounded the fanclub “Natural born Krillers (NBK)” (SES: FFS!!! 😂🤘🏾) in 2017.

Profis and FCSP II “make sense”, from there Chaos! FCSP III Kreisliga 2, FCSP “IV” (the “other guys”) Kreisliga 6, THE REAL IV Kreisliga 4 and some more teams in various amateur leagues. What’s the logic or story behind the naming of the amateur squads? Why the fuck IV was renamed to V?

When the 4th started in 1986 they played in the League “Untere Herren” C which had Staffel C, B and A. First promotion in May 1992 into UH-Staffel B and a year after next promotion in the “highest” class UH-Staffel A where we played 19 years and therefore no chance to change the names as everyone was playing in these leagues beside of the third team. We won this league in 2011! Compatible to our 25 years anniversary party!

In 2012 we decided to take the opportunity to make pressure to our Profis and started in the Kreisklasse which is the first League when you want to start to win the Europacup/Bundesliga (SES: ✊🏾).  Our first season was a nice fight with 6 other teams to go up into the next level Kreisliga. The 1st team would be promoted directly and the 2nd would go into relegation. Couriously enough that the 1st Team Croatia lost their last game 7:1 against Osterbek wich means we were only 3rd in the League due to 4 goals less.

But due to several circumstances we played in the end relegation against Hoisbuettel and Komet Blankenese. The first game we lost against Hoisbuettel and our 2nd game was not important anymore because the first team promoted only and Hoisbuettel had 4 points before we had our 2nd game but Blankenese was still able to get the first place. We started this game with 11 People only and after these long season with several injured people. Luckilywise Schlicky came with his dog for watching and had sport shoes on. He got some minutes finally and we won 4:1 and received warm beer as gift from Hoisbuettel.  Two weeks later we received the information that the 2nd team of the relegation will be promoted also this means we would play Kreisliga in our 2nd Profiseason with an average of 32 years!

With our Spanish combination we rocked the Kreisliga for the first half of the season and were on place 6 but the 2nd half of the year was too bad and we relegated back to Kreisklasse where we played till 2016. 2015/2016 we won the Kreisklasse 12 with 65 points and 109/32 goals! At this season we played two times away against the prisoners from Fuhlsbüttel where we had the most “fans” since a long time because the prisoners have yard exercise during the game (SES: respect!).

Since 2016 we tried our luck in the Kreisliga where we had the most visitors on a Kreisliga game against Falke, the old HSV guys. Guess everybody read about those two games at least in german newspapers (SES: and abroad…).

The reason why we “lost” our name in 2017 is that the “Untere Herren” League did not assist since 2015 anymore and from that day was clear that the day will come that another team will catch the other team and somebody will “lose” his name.

2011 Champions!

All of you have probably daily jobs. How do you combine this with training (we are aware that you not only drink) and football in general? (Have noticed certain days 12-13 people available) How the hell are you coping with the brutal morning schedules of the league?

We have a Team of about 30 boys which play for our Team – you have always 3-6 injuries – some people are on holiday or working therefore we have most of the time 15-17 people at a Game. Our Tuesday training at 20:30 we have sometimes over 20 people and on Fridays similar in the meantime. Lot of these guys working and living around the Feldstraße and therefore not that complicated. Yes these morning games are terrible for us but what shall we say? We want to play for this club and then have to do even 09:00 hrs games also when a festival was a day before – special regards to Jirka!

What about expenses? Looks like there’s a sponsor on the jersey lately, sounds good with no other income (except some money from AFM maybe?). Do you have to put the hand in the pocket to keep this running and, if yes, how deep?

We have our own Branch into FC St Pauli like the Rugby guys or Handballers where we have 4 chairmen – Kriller is one of those. They give us some money for the season to pay the referees and some other expenses but yes we have also some sponsors. In the past “Der Übersteiger” or lovely Jolly Roger but at the moment no special sponsor who supporting us. We have to pay the general club fee of EUR. 10 per month and a special fee into the team cash box in order to arrange enough beers/parties/clothes and, most important, to support Berni. The costs of a season are different for the team but the players themselves have to pay for the whole package about 200€ but if someone is not able to bring that money is it not a problem. We find for everyone solutions. Everybody shall play for St. Pauli when he wants to do so.

Some fine sponshorship over there

Tell us a little about the people we should booo and ask for their heads when team is not up to standards, Technical staff/Admin. How FCSP IV (and the other FCSP nns we presume) are organized as a department, is the structure similar to the other non-football amateur departments?

From the first day of the 4^th Team had three or four guys who are council of the team which the whole team chooses. Our Councils take decisions about new players/coaches, take a look that everyone get his minutes on the pitch. From the first day of the 4^th Team had three or four guys who are council of the team which the whole team chooses. Our Councils take decisions about new players/coaches, take a look that everyone get his minutes on the pitch. Since 2010 we have also a coach who is supporting but same to be controlled from our 4 councils.

Who is Berni?

Berni is our supervisor for everything. He is now in the team since 2005 or 2006 and even longer in the family of FC St Pauli as far as I know. He is our doctor/helper/manager. Mid of March he went 77 and some weeks ago we managed to get him to a doctor after 40 years!?!?! Doctor said he should drink more water otherwise he is healthy! He never missed a game or training which is incredible! Very hard time at the moment for him because football is his life and we try to visit him once a week (only a few guys for sure).

Without people like Berni amateur football would be possible but definitively not the same. So all our love has to go to Berni!

Berni and the crew

Matchday in a few words?

AB JETZT GEWINNEN IMMER WIR

(SES: video IS the answer 🤘🏾🏴‍☠️)

Lots of beer talk. Have seen Alte Herren II in Greece (Thessaloniki) some 6 years ago. Not only they had beer on the bench, they became so pished that during the 2nd half most of them had to be substituted by locals! Can you responsibly say that you’re at least as good as them?

Yes I would say so! In the meantime lot of our old guys (remember our average was 32 years in our first Kreisliga season) playing now 1st Alte Herren or 2nd Alte and a lot will follow the next years… 🙂

Is FCSP IV a “closed” club (transfers from friends/relatives pool) or are you actually drafting? What does it take to be able to wear this (heavy) jersey? (except the FCSP values criteria of course)

Well, lot of players coming of a friend of another friend and so on but we receiving lot of emails from people who would like to play for St. Pauli. Someone’s thinking also that is the first step to the profis (always funny). Depends always how many players leaving us at the end of a season but usually we have at the beginning of a season 4-5 trainings where everybody is welcome to show his skills on the pitch and, more important, beside the pitch (SES: 🥃🍻🤣).

Would you lend players to the profis in case it was required for survival reasons?

A bit difficult because the training is a bit too early for us but yes we would do it if we could take Berni with us.

Is there any merch that anybody could probably get their hands on?

Always stickers! And we will sell our matchworn trikots “St Pauli Vier gegen Rechts” in close future (SES: 👀). Money will go to an organization in the neighborhood.

 

Best and/or funniest memory from the mad world of amateur football?

If you go too early to a training and Bubu has time he will tell you lot of stories from old times which somebody has to bring into the museum and when Berni and Bubu are discussing nobody will understand a word but the picture is full of love

Do we have any serious rivalry or we are all friends here???

Be sure that there are some teams which are not that friendly. Still another club in the city with a few supporters.

Any “ambitions” and future plans?

2 years in a row 3rd place in the Kreisliga – may we will catch the Bezirksliga the next years and if not we will enjoy every Tuesday/Friday and Sundays beers, oregano with our lovely 6th team.

 

Just a small personal note (Greg but I believe that I speak for all Scum here) at the end of this. Among all the fun, there is a little more “serious” (OK, nobody died 😅) side to it. Being an FCSP fan (who got into FCSP for a lots of things but not for football alone (if for football at all)) and reading the above while observing all the Bundesliga chaos happening, mainly because of financial concerns, makes me relate a little more to this kind of thing than the well veneered but seriously crippled underneath Liga 2 reality… Have this in mind next time you find yourselves in Hamburg some Saturday/Sunday morning with really nothing remarkable to do…

Thanks again to Jannick and the crew (🙂) for this, looking really forward to the opportunity (after all this virus shit is over) to watch this crew live (they play Feldarena, in case it didn’t become obvious from some answers above). In the meantime, wishes for all the best in the future, starting with TOTAL BEZIRKSLIGA domination and the attendances that they deserve 😎🏴‍☠️

You will never get drunk on the bench alone – FORZA SANKT PAULI IV!!! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

Web page: http://fcstpauli4.blogsport.de/ (not really up-to-date in the last years)

Twitter: https://twitter.com/fcstpauli4

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fcstpauli5/?hl=

e-mail: fcstpauli4@gmx.de

 

Media area, LOTS of stuff

FCSP IV through time (classes of 1986, 2007 and 2017 can be found above 😎)

1991

1999

2000

2008

2010

2011

Not sure about that, looks like 2012, kicks ass anyway

2013

2015

2018

Golden era of sponshorship – Photoshoot at the Jolly 🤘🏾🤘🏾🤘🏾

Misc Stuff

Farewell to Kriller (2017)

2015-16, on the way to Kreisklasse domination!

Xmas 2018 🤘🏾

Berni trying to put this crew in some essential order