Eintracht Frankfurt can win the UEFA Supercup against Real Madrid on Wednesday as the second German club. FC Bayern Munich won the title in 2013 and 2020 – the first triumph was fueled by an impressive backdrop.
The UEFA Supercup 2013 wrote several noteworthy stories. First of all, of course, the story of the revenge: For the reigning Champions League winner FC Bayern Munich, the victory on penalties against FC Chelsea a year after the lost final at home was a great satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Javi Martinez advanced to the Mr. Supercup with his equalizing goal in overtime. When FC Bayern won their second title seven years later, he underpinned this aristocratic title with his late winning goal against FC Sevilla.
The third big story of the game was written in the stands of the Eden Arena in Prague: In the FC Bayern fan scene, the game is considered one of the most atmospheric ever, and at the same time it brought the fans closer to their club.
Uli Hoeneß praised the fans: “It was fantastic”
“That was the best support I’ve experienced in my time as a Bayern fan and the prime example of how singing can influence a game,” said Stefan Viehauser in an interview with SPOX and GOAL in 2017. As a season ticket holder and member of Club No. 12, the association of active FC Bayern fans, he had hardly missed a game for years.
“You take turns and drive hundreds of kilometers because, as a fan, you think you have an influence on the game. In 99.9 percent of cases, it doesn’t matter whether you’re there and singing or not,” reported Viehauser. “But Bayern also won that game because of us. We screamed non-stop for 90 minutes and that killed Chelsea.”
According to a report by Fan Magazine south curve blade the mood was “in terms of volume, it feels like the best we’ve delivered in years. It’s outstanding that almost 100 percent of the Bayern fans present took part in the singing. Goosebumps rose up for a moment.”
Incidentally, not only the fans saw it that way, but also the club officials. “I can’t praise our fans in Prague enough. It was fantastic what they did there,” said President Uli Hoeneß Munich Mercury. “I’m just as proud of the fans as of the team. They supported our team incredibly well for 150 minutes, their enthusiasm, their passion, their singing carried the team through this final.”
FC Bayern: Club and fans were in a small war
Those were quite remarkable statements, since the club and its supporters were in a kind of small war at the time. The active fans criticized the withdrawal of away season tickets and the installation of turnstiles in front of the standing room area in the lower tier of the south stand.
The club justified these steps with fines for pyrotechnic offenses and overcrowding in the standing area. Before that, fans from the neighboring blocks had regularly climbed over fences into the heart of the atmosphere or had their colleagues smuggle in with tickets.
The consequence of the dispute was a mood boycott at the first home games of the season against Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Nürnberg. As a result, CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge announced a test run for free block access in the southern stand as long as there is still space in the respective sector: “I would like to shake hands with the fan scene.” After the Supercup victory in Prague, Hoeneß added: “We had fruitful talks and games like the one in Prague are the basis for staying in touch.”
With the implementation of the block access plan shortly thereafter, the mood boycott ended. In the summer that followed, the previously smallest standing room area of any German Bundesliga team was expanded to cover the full width of the lower tier of the south curve.
