Supporters become one of the most influential factors in the success of a club. Without a group of people standing tall around the field, it’s impossible if the game is wrapped in an atmosphere of joy.
A bunch of people who have high loyalty can indirectly have a positive effect on the success of a team in a match. Believe it or not, those who have unlimited love and screams can arouse the passion of the players to keep fighting for 90 minutes of play.
In Germany, the fans become one of the main answers to why the Bundesliga competition is always great. Fans are not just dairy cows who continue to drain their money to support the club but also become owners who can participate in determining the direction of travel.
Fans’ support involvement in managing the club is manifested through a regulation called “50 + 1.” With this regulation, German football provides space for fans to become the majority shareholders of 51 percent. While the role of investors is proportionately limited. They can’t have more than 49 percent of the club’s shares.
The goal is clear, the Bundesliga organizers do not want investors to bring the club to the brink of collapse with various policies made without calculation. For the league organizers, the club is required to profit, but not at the expense of the interests of fans.
Talking about German football supporters, the Borussia Dortmund club fans will be in the spotlight. In the southern stands or sudtribune Signal Iduna Park Stadium, or commonly known as The Yellow Wall. There will always be noise, splendor, and an extraordinary atmosphere that makes Borussia Dortmund headquarters very intimidating to the opposing camp.
The singing voice that unites the choreography passionately. The Yellow Wall becomes the living proof of the strength of football supporters and the life for Signal Iduna Park.
The Yellow Wall rests in the south stands with a capacity of 25,000 spectators, making it the largest stands in Europe.
“If you are an enemy, then it can thrill and even destroy your mentality. But if you are part of Dortmund, then you will feel a fantastic atmosphere! “Said the legendary goalkeeper, Roman Weidenfeller (quoted from the official Bundesliga website).
Weidenfeller has been witnessing how The Yellow Wall seems to provide extra defense for the goal every time he turns his back or offered a special view every time he stood facing them.
One more testimony about The Yellow Wall came from rivals Dortmund, Bastian Schweinsteiger. The former Bayern Munich midfielder said that the one thing he feared most from Dortmund was The Yellow Wall.
“The Yellow Wall is the thing that I fear the most,” said Bastian Schweinsteiger (quoted from the official Bundesliga website)
Classified as the best fan group in the world, The Yellow Wall has a pretty interesting history.
Sudtribune was built in the early 1970s with room for 12 thousand people and was rebuilt with a doubled capacity in the 1990s, right when Dortmund began winning trophies.
Westfalenstadion, which is now named Signal Iduna Park was originally not included as a venue for the 1974 World Cup in Germany, but when Koln resigned as one of the organizing cities, Dortmund took four rations. Unlike most other venues, this stadium does not have running tracks around the field and the club can proudly state they have a pure stadium.
Uli Hesse, a writer who is also a fan of Borussia Dortmund, believes the stands were first called Yellow Wall in 2005, by an ultras group that made giant banners hanging from Sudtribune that was written ‘Gelbe Wand Dortmund’.
The Yellow Wall deserves to be called the craziest supporter. Not only about the support given from the sidelines, but also support from outside the field.
Those who do not want the club to go bankrupt continue to make strong protests for management to act. Right in 2005, several players’ salaries were cut, including goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller’s.
They continue to make noise so that the club officials realize that the team they love the most was on the verge of collapse.
Although not very financially supportive, the fans’ support was successful in bringing in investors to help finance the club. From there, everyone knows that Borussia Dortmund fans care a lot about the conditions being experienced by the club.
From that moment also created the forerunner to the change of name of the stadium, from Westfalenstadion to Signal Iduna Park.
Thanks to all the dedication shown by the fans, especially when they were inside the stadium, in 2009, The Times called Signal Iduna Park with the atmosphere created by The Yellow Wall as the best stadium in the world.
“This place was built for football and fans to express themselves. Every European Cup Final deserves to be held here.” The Times (quoted from ESP).
Besides endless support in 2005, the 2014/15 season also become a loyalty test for The Yellow Wall. At that time, in the middle of the season, Borussia Dortmund was in the relegation zone. The defeat of the Paderborn 07 team ended uniquely, with Matt Hummels, and Roman Weidenfeller, approaching The Yellow Wall, to hear complaints and input from supporters directly.
They even promised that Borussia Dortmund would get better in the next match.
Then, in a home match against Vfb Stuttgart, The Yellow Wall made a banner that was written,
“Du fällst, ich falle mit dir” or which means, “if you must fall, then I will fall with you.”
Signal Iduna Park will always be the perfect destination for hunters of beauty, awesomeness, and incomparable glamor.
The Yellow Wall becomes the main actor of a special choreography in every game. Pieces of paper used as mosaics messages or symbols to be conveyed to Die Borrussen. No less crowded with the many large flags that continue to be hoisted by supporters.
They make the density in the stands into two colors that move yellow-black. In the stands, The Yellow Wall never stopped giving support. Being a whip for Dortmund is their obligation as the 12th player.
The Yellow Wall will always be remembered as one of the best football monuments in the world. A unit that can give a beat in every home match of Borussia Dortmund whose thunderous always vibrate in each player’s chest and whose movements always amaze every pair of eyes that witness.
“Echte Liebe!”