‘April, April, er macht doch was Er will’ – Germans consider April an unpredictable and insubordinate month and, on account of being Germans, they don’t like it one bit.
FFT can sympathise as we stand, umbrella capsized and teeth chattering, on the terraces of Gelsenkirchen’s Parkstadion for a clash between Schalke II and RW Oberhausen. This sodden terrace hosted fans for five matches at the 1974 World Cup. Now, largely dismantled, it plays hosts to matches in the Regionalliga West, Germany’s regionalised fourth-tier.
