ST Pauli’s long-standing association with Celtic is still evident in the stands at the Millerntor Stadium on match days despite the schism which opened up between supporters of the German club and fans of the Scottish champions last year.
Many followers of the Hamburg outfit were upset when members of the Green Brigade unfurled banners at Parkhead which read “Free Palestine” and “Victory to the Resistance” hours after the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel had left over 1,200 dead back in October.
There was no official club statement on the situation in the Middle East but messages of support were sent to Hapoel Tel Aviv - Ultras Hapoel and Ultra Sankt Pauli also have a well-established friendship – as well as their Israeli fans who were affected.
A spokesperson for St Pauli’s fan club board issued a terse missive calling for their international fan groups to revisit the wording of their “borderline” social media output – and warned that “terrorism is not resistance” amid strongly disputed claims of anti-Semitism.
The 2. Bundesliga champions raised awareness of a fundraiser for the civilian population of Gaza - over 40,000 of whom have been killed since Israel launched a full-scale invasion in October, according to the Palestine health authority - following that.
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However, a number of overseas St Pauli supporters club, including a Glasgow group which comprised fans of many Scottish clubs, not just Celtic, chose to sever their ties with the world-renowned institution due to their stance on the conflict.
But Rupert Fabig, the St Pauli correspondent for the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper, says their decades-old alliance with Celtic has endured despite the ill-feeling which arose and he expects to see evidence of it once again at their opening Bundesliga match of the new season against Heidenheim at the Millerntor tomorrow.
“At every game you still notice a Celtic flag or someone wearing a Celtic jersey,” said Fabig. “They are the only jersey from other teams which you see in the ground. You see Celtic fans on social media applauding St Pauli when they win. If you asked a St Pauli fan which club they are most friendly I think most of them would still say Celtic.
“The war was a topic when it started. But it only lasted for a couple of weeks. Some fan clubs and some fans moved away from the club. The club positioned itself on the side of Israel.
“I would say that 95 per cent of football clubs want to keep politics out of a stadium. But St Pauli are all for it. They focus on democratic values and believe it is important to fight for freedom, but they are on Israel’s side. Obviously, terrorism is something they are not promoting. They always have a social conscience.”
“It is so fractured,” he said. “Friendships have been affected across the board. There are groups across Europe who have fallen away because of the ultras’ response to international fan clubs. It has certainly taken away some of the enjoyment of watching the team in the most successful era they have had since 2010.
“But there are also people in supporters’ clubs who have decided to look beyond what the ultras think because they feel they don’t represent all the fans and are still following the side regardless. It is a difficult situation to navigate. A lot of St Pauli fans have come out and said, ‘What is happening here? The genocide has to stop’.
“Nobody saw this coming. There are people who have washed their hands of them altogether and people who have their own political outlook who still support them. The landscape in Scotland has changed as a result of what has happened. It is so hard to predict what will happen.
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“I will be watching the St Pauli game on Sunday. The Bundesliga is a tough league to be in. They would traditionally go up for a season and drop straight back down. That was what happened in 2010/11. It will be interesting to see how the league pans out for them this time around.”
Fabig fully expects the St Pauli fans to be targeted by rival supporters – particularly when they take on RB Leipzig and Union Berlin, clubs which are based in the old East Germany – on their return to the Bundesliga because of their overtly left wing political ideology.
“Every St Pauli away game in eastern Germany attracts people from right wing,” he said. “Just last Friday they played a cup game against Hallescher and there was trouble. These people are not even fans of their local clubs. They just show up to provoke, to annoy, to do some damage.
“As I say, it is something that happens in every road game in eastern Germany. In western and northern Germany it is no big deal, but in eastern Germany, where right wing political parties are more popular, it is a huge problem. They will shoot fireworks at the St Pauli fans inside stadiums and things like that.”
