2 Bundesliga

The opening game of Germany’s 2017/18 second division campaign was broadcast live on BT Sport, presumably in response to growing interest in the UK in the 2 Bundesliga. If you managed to catch this game between VfL Bochum and 1 FC St Pauli you will have seen a pulsating, hard-fought game played in front of a capacity crowd of noisy, passionate fans. If you were lucky enough to be there you will have experienced the thrill, excitement and sense of occasion of a German football match.

You don’t have to limit yourself to Bundesliga to have a great time watching football in Germany. You can also have memorable experiences in the second division. It will cost you less than the Bundesliga and tickets will be easier to come by. The crowds might be a bit smaller, but the atmosphere will be just as thrilling as in the top tier.

Who to watch

Where you go depends very much on where you want to stay in Germany, the kind of club you are interested in and they sort of experience you are looking for.

Location

The ideal base for a football visit to Germany is a city that has a large airport and good transport links is surrounded by a range of clubs. Football is played in Germany on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – so if you come over for a long weekend and if the fixtures work out right, you could treat yourself to a game from all three top divisions.

Crowd size

The average attendance at 2 Bundesliga games last season was 21,735, but this figure conceals a very wide range. At 55,515 average attendance at VfB Stuttgart was higher than that of many Bundesliga clubs. At the other extreme, 6,731 fans came on average to see SV Sandhausen. So if you want to experience a Bundesliga-sized crowd you need to look for the clubs with the highest attendance figures. If you prefer something smaller look further down the table. Another factor might be the number of season tickets sold.

Type of club

There are several kinds of club in the second division – all worth a visit, but for very different reasons.

First, there are the teams that have just dropped out of the Bundesliga and are fighting for a return to the top flight. Sometimes these are very big clubs with Bundesliga levels of attendance and the atmosphere to match. This season’s newly-relegated teams are FC Ingolstadt and SV Darmstadt.

Then there are the so-called sleeping giants. These are the clubs that were once highly successful, whose fans dream that a return to the glory days is just around the corner. I am thinking of clubs like 1 FC Nürnberg, 1 FC Kaiserslautern, Fortuna Düsseldorf, Dynamo Dresden, Eintracht Braunschweig and VfL Bochum.

There are also clubs with a long and proud history, with armies of loyal and passionate fans, but with much less financial security. I mean clubs like MSV Duisburg and Armenia Bielefeld whose fans endure a double life of hope and despair. For them, exhilarating promotion campaigns seem to be followed by demoralising relegations battles.

You can use this table to help you decide. Click on the name of the club for more information.

Club	Average attendance 2016/17	Season tickets sold	Convenient Airport
FC St Pauli	29,401	15,000	Hamburg
1 FC Nürnberg	28,834	18,000	Nürnberg/Munich
Dynamo Dresden	20,859	18,000	Berlin/Leipzig
1 FC Kaiserslautern	26,368	11,971	Frankfurt
Fortuna Düsseldorf	25,978	12,000	Cologne/Düsseldorf/Dortmund
Eintracht Braunschweig	21,419	16,000	Hannover
1 FC Union Berlin	20,859	11,266	Berlin
Armenia Bielefeld	17,504	8,300	Düsseldorf/Hannover
Bochum	16,933	6,659	Düsseldorf/Dortmund
FC Ingolstadt	14,601	6,800	Munich
SC Darmstadt	16,753	10,900	Frankfurt
Duisburg	14,175	6,659	Düsseldorf/Dortmund
1 FC Heidenheim	12,518	7,100	Stuttgart
SpVgg Greuther Fürth	9,525	5,250	Munich
Erzgebirge Aue	8,588	3,110	Leipzig
Jahn Regensburg	6,320	3,600	Munich
SV Sandhausen	6,731	2,500	Stuttgart
Holstein Kiel	5,711	4,200	Hamburg

Getting around

Travel in Germany is a joy. Trains are quick, reliable and comfortable. Public transport in towns and cities is integrated so that you can use the same ticket on train, tram, bus or underground. And if you get the right ticket you can travel long distances relatively cheaply. The transport organisations in big towns and cities usually have an English section on their website to help you plan journeys and get the best possible deals. So if I am in the Ruhr area, for example, I would go to the VRR website. If I am travelling further afield I use these three websites:

Loco2 is an online company that specialises in train travel. You can use them to buy tickets to and from anywhere in Europe. You simply provide departure, destination, date and time and they do the rest in seconds.

You can also plan your trips and buy Print@Home or e-tickets at the Deutsche Bahn (German Railway) website. They also give information and advice on the best deals.

My favourite travel website is The Man in Seat 61. Its author, Mark Smith, knows everything there is to know about train travel in Europe and beyond. If you go to the Germany section you will find advice on buying tickets, interactive maps to help you plan routes, general information about travel in Germany and links to other helpful sites.

At many clubs your ticket includes free travel by local public transport(except ICE trains) to and from the game. This is definitely worth investigating if you buy your ticket in advance.

What have I missed?

I have done my very best to check all my information, to include every club and to organise them conveniently. But I have not been able to visit every single club in person and am certain to have made mistakes. There may also be better ways of getting to and from particular places and other lower league clubs that could be included. If you spot anything, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know.