As the game clock ticked down during Hamburg SV’s recent 1-0 win over rival SC Freiburg, another clock in the stadium ticked up, counting one of European soccer’s more remarkable runs.
Time, however, is running out.
A counterpart to the Eamus Catuli sign — which measures the time between the Cubs’ division, league and World Series wins — the digital clock in Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion measures the years, days, hours, minutes and seconds that the team has spent in the Bundesliga. Hamburg is the only founding member never relegated since Germany’s top division began on Aug. 24, 1963.
When the Eamus Catuli (roughly “Let’s go Cubs” in Latin) sign was reset to 0 in 2016, fans rejoiced.
When the Hamburg clock, installed in 2001, hits 0:00, fans and players will despair.
“You don’t want to be a guy on the team that gets relegated after all these years,” American striker Bobby Wood, who joined the team last year, told the New York Times. “We’re in a bad situation, and (need to) do something different to get out of it.”
With two games left in the season, Hamburg, whose mascot is a dinosaur representing its longevity, is in 17th place, next to last, two points behind the 16th team. The bottom two teams are automatically sent down to the second division. The 16th place team plays a relegation playoff against the third place team from the lower class.
This has been a trying season for Hamburg supporters, with protests during matches and demands for changes at the top.
At a recent game, masked fans set off fireworks and flares on the field, forcing the referee to twice halt the game. Others unfurled a banner that read: “We will hunt you out of the city before the clock switches off.”
One fan, however, has not wavered.
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“I support them even more,” Tim Stoltenberg said. “Since my colleagues and friends know about my ‘problem’ I am often confronted with jokes. … My three sons are HSV fans, too. They do really suffer right now, since all the kids are making fun of them.”
Hamburg SV spokesman Lennart Westphal says when the season ends, should the team drop down, the clock will be turned off.
But Stoltenberg has another idea: “Keep it in the stadium as a memory, but don’t reset,” he said. “Let it be there with the last second in the first league.”
Twitter @Timbannon
Popular sign counting years since Cubs’ championship sits at zero, so now what? “