Meeting on equal terms

What's your experience of football during the coronavirus pandemic? How has your life as a fan developed over the past twelve months?

Sabine: "I feel like it's as if I was in a moving car and the handbrake had been put on and you couldn't release it. Suddenly everything went from one hundred to zero. We used to be in a stadium practically every weekend, including away games. Football was at the centre of our lives. Then everything suddenly stopped. I've never watched so much football on television but in terms of the fun factor it's like eating a 'vegan currywurst'. The whole emotion has disappeared and I'm really missing my fan club and meeting with other fans at the stadium. There's a huge void."

Peter: "I used to plan everything around football, emergency duty, standby duty etc. and I’m missing the stadium experience incredibly. You used to get butterflies in your stomach on matchdays and were excited, and I used to get to the ground with my wife well before the gates opened. We also miss the away trips where we often used to combine the culture of the different cities with the football match. Communication with the other fans, the whole stadium experience – I really, really miss that. All emotions have completely disappeared without football."

Wuppi: "I've never spent as much time at home in my life. This game has never been so strange since the beginning of lockdown last year. This distance, that has increasingly developed in today's football business, has grown even bigger. There's no longer a real connection to the big passion. It's great when the team wins but if they lose then people just accept it. That deadening effect would have been unthinkable before coronavirus. I think it's terrible but it hasn't anything to do with apathy."

Marco: "If you'd said to me two years ago that I'd spend so much time with the family as I have in recent months then I wouldn't have believed it myself. Every weekend was planned around Bayer 04, all home games in any case, but also the away games with the samba processions or with the fan project. Again and again you get to know new people and have a great time together."

How have Bayer 04 acted towards you during the coronavirus pandemic? Have you had expectations that have been met or not met?

Sabine: "You could see the club tried to keep in contact with the fans. A lot has been posted on social media. It still moves me when I think of the 'Fans, we miss you' video that was made with the team. We felt: 'Hey, the players are thinking of us, they haven't forgotten us.' Our fan club had its 30th anniversary and it was great that Bayer 04 thought about us and sent us a present. I've heard that from other fan clubs too. And this meeting with Mr Carro is not a matter of course. When you say to fans of Bayern Munich or other clubs that the CEO is taking time out for us then they can hardly believe it."

Wuppi: "The team impressed me and lots of others when they ran up to the away end after the derby victory in Cologne. That still gives me the goose bumps now. The players did that on the spur of the moment to say their thanks at exactly the place where we couldn't stand. It's also good that contact with the club has become really intensive through coronavirus. I know from my work with the fan organisations that this contact on equal terms hardly exists anywhere else. You get the feeling what we bring to the attention of the club really counts."

Marco: "Bayer 04 have done some things but the question we ask ourselves is rather: Will the things that have been done be stopped or continued after the coronavirus pandemic? We hope it definitely carries on. There have been many events like the cookbook for the Leverkusen charities that we should keep. The club shouldn't just do that during the pandemic."

Peter: "There have been several events where the club has shown what's important to them as a family. The support of a number of community projects, where the fans have been brought in, was equally as positive as the fan liaison. I thought that was important and it was also good for the image of Bayer 04. One highlight was definitely when fans came to the stadium after the cup final to collect the T-shirts that had been placed on the seats at the Olympic Stadium where we should have been sitting. Unfortunately, the communal experience in Berlin could not happen but on that morning the feeling of being together was a great experience."

What requests do you have for Bayer 04 during the coronavirus pandemic?

Sabine: "I'd like it if everything got going again soon. That we can stand on the terraces again and get behind the team. And that we can have contact with the team again and are able to build up a relationship with the players once more. I'd also find it brilliant if the players perhaps have noticed that we fans have been missing."

Peter: "I think the most important thing is restoring the affinity between the team, fans and club. There used to be an annual meeting at the Wilhelm Dopatka Hall. A lot should be done for the children and teenagers at the season launch event. If there are autograph sessions then the players shouldn’t sit there with a stopwatch because they want to get home quickly. And the fan congresses should be held again."

Wuppi: "A get-together should be organised to revive contact where several players meet selected fans and exchange views."

Marco: "Like the management, I hope we can finally win a title again."

How will you react when fans are allowed back in the stadium?

Peter: "I'd be here straightaway if the stadium was open again. With the Bundesliga game against Leipzig (played in front of 6000 spectators on 26 September 2020, ed.) you could see how happy people were to be able to come back after six months. And there was lots of atmosphere from all the stands because not so much support could come from the North Stand. Everybody wanted to compensate. I can already imagine the beautiful day when it finally gets going again."

Wuppi: "The basic idea of the active fans and also for me too: It won't benefit us if we go back to the stadium and you have to have two empty seats next to you. That was not an option against Leipzig. We’ll only come back when the stadium can be full again. Sitting in the top tier or even in the away end is not the football I've experienced for 24 years. I want to sing, jump and hop. I'd rather stay at home as long as that's not possible because of coronavirus. But I wouldn't say to anybody else: 'Stay at home.’ Everybody should do what they want. But as soon as we get back to how things used to be then there will be massive interest."

Sabine: "I want to be one of the first to get back in the ground even if I have to sit on an upturned bucket. When we can get back into the stadium then we all have to make sure that it will be like it was before coronavirus. But I fear that it will be a long time before that happens. At the home game against Leipzig, I cried because I didn't get a ticket in the draw. I hoped that my dear mother, who was allowed in, would say: 'I'll make the sacrifice, you go.' But unfortunately she didn't do that."

Marco: "My mates and I have a clear opinion: No, we won't, at first. We always stand on the terraces in the North Stand and we can't imagine being anywhere else. I sat in a different place for the cup tie against Norderstedt and it wasn't like a normal game for me. I looked at my mobile phone and around me. I can accept there is a balancing act where you want to let the fans in, on the one hand, but are not able to fill the home end on the other. But my mates and I want to be consistent and only come back when we can all go in the home end."

After the meeting with the fans, Fernando Carro look back at the evening at the BayArena:
"We have the privilege of being able to play football. We are grateful for that as it safeguards our club and its employees. But it's an emergency situation. Again and again it's an oppressive feeling to look at the empty stadiums and go through the empty concourses. I wanted to find out first hand what it's like for the people who would normally be here with us. How they have experienced this year without being able to go to the stadium, without the fan pub, without personal contact in and around football.

As management, the primary aim was and is to maintain the organisation, fixtures, and secure the necessary relevant processes. You automatically run the risk of losing sight of things, which in normal – and hopefully soon to return – times are important and are an indispensable part of the functioning system. That's why it was important to me to talk less for a change and listen more. To listen and take away feelings, concerns and expectations. It was very valuable. Thank you very much to everybody who took part in this event. And to all other Bayer 04 fans: Football is rubbish without you and we have to see each other again soon."