After all of the hullabaloo, who here still thinks soccer/futbol is an absolute bore?

Is football coming home?

Keir Starmer: “It looks like it!”

German football club Fortuna Düsseldorf is extending its revolutionary free tickets scheme into a second season and expanding the offer to four home games, the club announced on Thursday.

Second-division outfit Düsseldorf unveiled their "Fortuna for All" project ahead of the 2023/24 campaign in which they gave away tickets for three home games free of charge.

The plan was to compensate for lost ticketing revenue by convincing prominent local businesses to back the socially inclusive scheme as new club sponsors.

At the same time, the club hoped to increase attendance at its MERKUR Spiel Arena, which hosted five matches at this summer's European Championships but is rarely sold out for Düsseldorf home games.

Although Fortuna ultimately missed out on promotion to the top-flight Bundesliga in a dramatic play-off penalty shootout, the club has concluded that the first season of "Fortuna for All" was a success.
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'Fortuna for All' sees overall ticket revenues increase
Fortuna revealed that they received 350,000 ticket requests for the three free home games against Kaiserslautern in October (a dramatic 3-3 draw), Hamburg-based St. Pauli in January (a 1-2 defeat) and Eintracht Braunschweig in April (a 2-0 win) – over five times the usual demand.

And despite earning no revenue from ticket sales for three home matches, the club reported that overall ticketing revenue for the whole season increased by 28%.

Membership of the entirely member-controlled club reportedly increased by a record 20% to over 33,000, while ticket sales for the coming 2024/45 season were up 19%.

One concern attached to offering tickets free of charge was the potential for "no-shows" given the lack of monetary value attached to a ticker, but the club said the average "no-show rate" was lower than for normal games.

According to a survey conducted by the club among its members, 70% thought "Fortuna for all" had gone well and only 9% were unhappy with it. "Our goal is to convince that 9%," said Chairman Jobst.

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Rheinmetall's role as a leading player in the arms manufacturing industry is seen as highly controversial among sections of Borussia Dortmund's 200,000 members and wider fanbase.

At November's annual general meeting, 556 of 855 members present voted against the deal in a non-binding vote. There were 247 votes in favour, with 52 abstentions.
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In November 2022, the club drew up and published a code of ethics in which it committed itself to "a society without racism, antisemitism, homophobia, sexism, violence and discrimination."

Particularly the penultimate point led to criticism from some quarters given the prominent role of Rheinmetall in German arms exports, not only in the modern day but also historically during the Second World War.

"Such a company wants to be mentioned not only in the context of weapons which injure and kill people, but also with more positive things," Mathias John, Amnesty Germany's arms industry expert, told DW. "Football and sport are positive topics. People associate them with happiness and fair competition, and Rheinmetall wants a piece of that."

Dortmund's most prominent German-speaking fan blog, schwartzgelb.de, criticized the club for both its reasoning behind the deal and the timing of its announcement.

"Just be honest. Say Rheinmetall wants to improve its image and BVB wants the money, and that you have decided the company corresponds to the club’s values," the website wrote. "But save us the statesman-like chatter."

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Reuters news agency quotes the government as saying that around 56 people have been killed.

Local media said police had used tear gas after supporters of the visiting team, Labé, threw stones towards the pitch in anger at the referee.

"It all started with a contested decision by the referee. Then fans invaded the pitch," one witness told AFP.
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