Bundesliga on New Year's Eve ?: The big hangover among football stars

In England it is a good tradition to play professional football between years. For us, however, the winter break usually rules. That wasn't always the case, however. Two games took place in the Bundesliga on New Year's Eve – if only someone would remember them!

In England, Boxing Day, as it took place last Saturday, is an age-old tradition. Since the first football game – the legendary and prestigious derby between Sheffield FC and Hallam FC – was played on Boxing Day in 1860, the British have been thirsting for this happening on a day on which the world of the West would otherwise stand still.

But there is another tradition on the island that delights the hearts of football fans and challenges the discipline of professional footballers a second time: the league games on New Years! While the fans like to use the games for an extended excursion in the fresh air after a night of partying, the unusual date means that the professionals regularly do without. Most players go to bed before the turn of the year without any celebration.

In Germany, soccer stars have always had a much better time in this regard. The so-called winter break lets league operations rest for several weeks in normal times. Games like 1978, when they met on December 30th in Darmstadt for an encounter between the lilies and VfL Bochum, are a real rarity. At that time, the unusual scheduling brought Bum-kun Cha, who would later be Frankfurt and Leverkusen's favorite crowd, into dire straits.

Doesn't anyone remember anymore?

Because the South Korean was swallowed by the earth right after his Bundesliga debut. Bum-kun Cha even left the envelope with his prize money (1500 DM) lying in Darmstadt. The reason: he had to start military service in his home country on January 1st and was extremely late due to the unusual schedule.

But there were actually two games in the long history of the Bundesliga that kicked off on the very last day of the year. But: Almost none of those involved at the time can still remember these two New Year's Eve games. Is that because of the more than 50 years that have passed since then? Or maybe on the special date and the wet and happy celebrations that are usually celebrated on this day?

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Anyway. The first meeting on December 31st took place in 1964 in Nuremberg. The club against VfB Stuttgart was the name of the game. And not only the appointment was exceptional – the kick-off time on this wintry Thursday was also not the rule. At least 23,000 spectators had gathered in the municipal stadium at 3 p.m.

An "extremely sad" spectacle

Unfortunately, there is no record of who still remembers the game from them. But players like the Nuremberg legends Horst Leupold or Luggi Müller no longer have the faintest idea that they made history back then. Müller still has the exact circumstances of the encounter in mind, knows from scratch that he had been operated on on the appendix shortly before and that he celebrated his late equalizer to 1: 1 all the more special – but that the game was played on New Year's Eve , no, he forgot.

And exactly one year later, the game between the glorious Tasmania from Berlin and Eintracht Braunschweig was swallowed up in the nirvana of oblivion. Only the old records from that time clearly show that this encounter took place at all. But what the sports magazines had to report about this "extremely sad game" actually sounds like a day to forget. No wonder, then, that players still have a hangover today as they are desperately trying to remember the game.

This time the DFB started the game, which was led by referee Günther Baumgärtel, at 2 p.m. Perhaps it was due to this early kick-off or the now hopeless sporting situation of Tasmania in the league that only just under 3,000 paying visitors showed up in the wide area of ​​the Olympic Stadium and saw a safe 2-0 victory for the Braunschweig team.

Tasmania is keeping its fingers crossed for Schalke

The "tragedy", as the press wrote afterwards, was the last game that the DFB played on this special date. Even in times of great deadlines, the football officials in Frankfurt never got the idea of ​​putting a game on New Year's Eve of all things. Presumably, the rather modest experiences the league had with that date also led to this decision.

Even in this special year, the Bundesliga paused between December 23rd and January 2nd. Jürgen Klopp, on the other hand, had to play with Liverpool on December 27th and 30th – but without fans in the stadiums it was Boxing Day in England too and it won't be the same on New Year's as in all the other years before.

But one club really likes this break between the years. Because at Tasmania 1900 Berlin they sincerely hope that FC Schalke 04 will make good use of the short break to start the new year with fresh energy. Because the Berliners want to keep their old negative record from the 1965/66 season when they lost on New Year's Eve for a little longer.