Pitch Invasion

On July 25, Rot-Weiss Erfurt will host Dynamo Dresden under the floodlights. In seasons past, this match, pitting two down-on-their-luck third-division clubs against one another, would have gone largely unnoticed even in soccer-mad Germany. Things are different this year. The clubs will be playing the first match in the history of the 3. Liga, the newly fashioned, fully professional, nationwide German third division.

When MLS and Bundesliga tied up a partnership last season, most people saw it as a good thing. MLS would learn from the Bundesliga and every forward thinking international football fan recognised MLS had picked perhaps the most supporter-friendly league in Europe to partner with. But now it looks like the transatlantic influence will push the other way, as Los Angeles-based Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) push for a change that could transform the Bundesliga, and probably for the worse from a supporters’ perspective.

Photo credit: redia_09 on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion photo pool.