My brother is visiting at the end of November and I'd love to take him to a game but a swiss friend told us they can get a little rough. Anyone been and have feedback? Any sections of the stadium to avoid?
I don't want to spend a ton on tickets so it may have to be the nosebleed section....
thanks
angela
decisions decisions...
After seeing preparation here in Basel for when Zürich comes calling, I'll agree to avoid matches between FC Zürich and FC Basel, here they have helicopters equipped with water cannons flying about the city pretty much the entire day of such matches. (Let alone whatever coverage is in place closer to the action.)
Over all though, I've not heard of anything particularly bad happening either here or there unless the teams were playing each other. Sure there will be some drunk folks being loud and having a good time but generally not anything to actually be concerned about.
Believe it or not after being a season ticket holder at Millwall for over ten year very rarely did I ever see trouble in the home games. This was more likely to happened at an away match and not very often in the ground.
Enjoy and please post your experience on here as I may just have to go along for a visit - minus the MILLWALL scarf of course!
Maybe we should suggest the water canons at The Den!
Its more a case of radicals and they dont trouble normal people, go to the match and enjoy
It is always half empty : and although the football is reasonable quality : do not expect any atmosphere. Game in November is against Aarau who are bottom of league so expect goals but not much of a contest.
Not seen any real trouble but tolerance of police is far higher than UK and in my view why they have the problem :
Thanks in advance!
This is one of the few games at the Letzigrund that is likely to generate any kind of atmosphere. It's an athletics stadium, so supporters are a long way from the pitch, and normally the ground is only a third full or less. Should be fuller for a game against Basel though.
Both teams have had a poor start to the season by their standards and will be looking to make up lost ground, it should be a good game.
Basel are not as good as last year having sold their two best players to Munich and Moenchengladbach, and are already out of the Champions League.
FCZ have had a big team makeover and are finding their feet.
Surprisingly Switzerland tolerates behaviour in and around football grounds that would be unheard of in Britain since the 80s. Expect about 12000 at the game in a 25000 stadium. In the main areas the fans mix and I never saw trouble there but 2 seasons or so ago this game ended up with lighted flares being thrown into some of these areas.
After 3 years of a season ticket holding I find catching the odd game in UK and DE as a better investment
Here is the official ZH police video of 2011 showing the basel fans from Zurich Altstetten train station to the entrance of the stadium. After some discussion with the security who wanted to take some fire crackers off the ultras did the situation escalate immediately and the fans forced the security out of the way and trashed half the stadium including food stands and toilets:
Having been a supporter my entire life, I'm not unfamiliar with violence inside as well as outside the stadium. However, I've always been able to avoid trouble by just staying away when things have gotten out of hand. I guess that strategy works equally well in Switzerland? To be honest, I rather watch games like this than games that few care about. In my opinion, football should be about strong emotions and a healthy dose of rivalry between both the players and the supporters. Hopefully it will stay within the thin line that separates that from violence.
Letzigrund sounds a little bit like a light version of a giant stadium we have back in Gothenburg, Sweden. My team, IFK Göteborg, played there two seasons when our current stadium was built. It can hold ~65 000 spectators and those years the average number of spectators was 15 797 (2007 - much thanks to the last game that sold out because the club had the chance to win the league for the first time since 1996) and 9 632 (2008). I think you can imagine how the atmosphere was when we played against small obscure teams from the countryside. Also that stadium had those godforsaken running tracks that have been creating bad atmosphere at football games since the beginning of time.
Hearing about that the Basel supporters boycotted the last game, makes me a bit nervous. I hope this won't happen again this time? The absence of away supporters usually don't make the atmosphere better...
I still haven't gotten used to that I hypothetically could go watch the big games in Italy and Germany without having to spend too many hours on the road. Will definitely have to give that a go as well some time.
The linked video was quite choking. To me it seems like the Stadtpolizei Zürich completely underestimated the need of a large attachment, had to be hell for those poor policemen that had to fight hundreds of "supporters". I guess the police has learned their lesson, though. Otherwise they could always put soap on the ground, seems to be working very well if you look at 00.09 in the linked video. Nothing to write home about for that fellow...
It seems to attract publicity here because any act of public rebellion here is newsworthy, but its nothing at all to worry about. I walked through a station once where Sion vans were reportedly "smashing the place up" but they even stood back to let us through! Just don't hang around with kids who look like they are there for a fight and you'll be fine. There is never any "spillover" violence