How the German Media Fell in Love with Scottish Football Fans
By Kathleen Starck
25 June, 2024
Though the Scottish National team has a bit of a reputation of “always loosing”, the German media seem to have fallen in love with the Scottish fans, the “Tartan Army”. And there were lots of them. I mean LOTS.
Some estimates were that for the match against Hungary in Stuttgart there were 50.000 fans expected. Some media reported that fans themselves thought there might be about 100.000. The police had also expected up to 100.000 (and this author can confirm that “the morning after” Stuttgart main station was full of kilt and blue jersey-wearing travelers). Before the match, Stuttgart was “securely in Scottish hands” (Gmuender Tagespost), which had also been reported for Munich, where there were even an estimated whopping 200.000 Scottish fans for the match against Germany (Eurosport). Likewise, in Cologne, where the team played Switzerland, there were about 60.000.
The Scottish team’s captain Andy Robertson is cited as saying that it felt as if all of Scotland’s population were there (Antenne Bayern). Which, according to anecdotal evidence, seems justified. The author of this article has heard from Scottish fans unexpectedly bumping into people they knew or meeting people who lived in the same street as their parents. This is not surprising, though, considering that the last time the “Bravehearts” qualified was during the pandemic and travelling was out of the question. And before that, well, let’s just say there weren’t too many qualifications, well, four.
So all the more reason for the Tartan Army to follow their motto “No Scotland, no Party”. And the media loves it. Thus, the Spiegel already in 2007 called the Scottish fans “the nicest pissed fans in the world”, whose singing gives everyone goosebumps whose heart is not made from stone. This year, ZDF calls the Scottish fans legendary. The Rheinische Post reports about bagpipe-playing and singing fans and applauds their high spirits, joy, loyalty to their team and peaceful celebrations and calls them the championship’s favourite fans. Die Welt is in raptures about Scottish fans praising German finders of a mobile phone, who handed it in to the police and applauds German-Scottish friendship. The WDR celebrates how Scottish fans help an elderly person across the street in the pouring rain and how a German asked if they could keep the Scots. The Süddeutsche named them as “favourite guests”, to whom everyone should be grateful for ever. The Tagesspiegel calls the Tartan Army “a blessing for the championship” and finds their value for the Euros priceless. Sportschau claims that the Tartan Army enchants Germany.
Kicker publishes a “Love Letter” to the Scottish fans, in which the Tartan Army is invited to stay on in Germany until the final match and in which the author takes his hat off to their peaceful passion and friendly enthusiasm. And Ran credits the Scottish fans with having put everyone into a good mood. Because of this, Ran declares Scotland, who have already been knocked out of the Euros, the winner of this championship.
https://www.antenne.de/nachrichten/bayern/schotten-feiern-schon-in-muenchen
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/sport/fussball-em-2024-schottland-fanforscher-lange-100.html
https://x.com/sportschau/status/1804445129941368993
https://www.kicker.de/liebesbrief-an-die-schottischen-fans-1033526/artikel
https://www1.wdr.de/nachrichten/fussball-em-besondere-momente-100.html