Historic! 13 years later, progressive St. Pauli returns to the Bundesliga

The old saying “football and politics don’t mix” never applied to St. Pauli. The club, well known for its left-wing roots on the political spectrum, is a voice in the fight against sexism, racism and homophobia. For the 2024/25 season, they will take their ideas even further, as, this Sunday (12), they beat Osnabrück 3-1, in the 33rd round of Germany’s second division, and confirmed their return to the Bundesliga for the first time since 2011.

The Pirates reached 66 points and lead the competition. Fortuna Düsseldorf, third already guaranteed in the playoffs, has 60 and can no longer reach them. The fight for the title will go to the last round, as Holstein Kiel, second and also guaranteed in the Bundesliga for the first time in history (they already played in the first division before the modern era), have 65.

St. Pauli’s access, with the right to the fans’ invasion of the Millerntor-Stadion lawn, had an even more special taste because their biggest rival Hamburg did not go up for the sixth season in a row and will continue in Bundesliga 2 for another year.

To beat Osnabrück today, the Pirates, coached by 31-year-old Fabian Hurzeler, once again had the best player of the campaign. Midfielder Marcel Hartel scored the third winning goal and reached 17 in 33 second division rounds. He also distributed 12 assists, an average of 2.9 decisive passes and, therefore, is one of the candidates to also be the best player in the tournament.

But this Sunday the one who really took responsibility was the Englishman Oladapo Afolayan, scoring twice and becoming the second top scorer of the campaign with nine (tied with Johannes Eggestein).

So far in the entire Bundesliga 2, St. Pauli has the best defense, leaked 35 times, and one of the team’s strategies is to defend with the ball, as it has the second highest average of possession (57.1%) and successful passes (454.3) in the competition.

In the final round, decisive for the title, the Hamburg team visits Wehen Wiesbaden, a team fighting to see whether they will be relegated directly to the third division or make the playoffs against the 3rd placed team in the 3. League. The direct rival for the cup, Holstein Kiel, plays away with Hannover 96, who have no further aspirations in the competition.

Why is St. Pauli left-wing?

When we watch St. Pauli games, it becomes clear how a large part of their fans think. There are flags of Che Guevara, the figure of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, of the rainbow of the LGBTQIA+ movement, with messages against capitalism, with destroyed Nazi swastikas, against all types of prejudice (this, in fact, is part of the club’s statute ), anyway.

The 80s and 90s saw the change for an “ordinary” club to become a militant left wing. In the 1980s, the city of Hamburg became the stage for discussions about unused land being occupied by homeless movements and workers in general. In this scenario, part of this group migrated to the Millerntor stands.

From then on, some fans led a movement to expel fascism within their own fans – and they succeeded. Subsequently, the sale of tickets or the acceptance of members to people who had any connection with far-right ideals was prohibited. St. Pauli also had a gay president for eight years, Corny Littman, who led the club through its rise until the last time they played in the Bundesliga.