As of: February 8, 2024, 6:59 p.m
By: Jannek Ringen
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Press
Split
FC St. Pauli is considered a model club when it comes to sustainability.
Nevertheless, the first team will travel to Mallorca next week for training.
Hamburg – The north of Germany has been repeatedly hit by heavy rain since the beginning of the year.
These had consequences for FC St. Pauli's training grounds.
For this reason, the second division team from Hamburg will be training on the Balearic island of Mallorca next week.
There was a lot of headwind for the project.
Pitches not playable: FC St. Pauli flies to Mallorca in the middle of the season
In the 2nd Bundesliga, FC St. Pauli is still undefeated at the top of the table after 20 match days.
In the next two games, the Kiezkickers will face 1. FC Magdeburg and Eintracht Braunschweig.
In between, however, Fabian Hürzeler's team is staying on the Balearic island of Mallorca, as the rainfall over the past few weeks has affected the pitches.
“FC St. Pauli will therefore travel to Mallorca from Monday (February 12th) to Friday (February 16th) to complete the training week there,” the club’s statement said.
Before the game against Eintracht Braunschweig, Hamburg will use the training grounds of Spanish first division club RCD Mallorca to prepare for the game.
FC St. Pauli trains in Mallorca for a week in February.
© IMAGO / Chris Emil Janßen;
IMAGO / Oliver Ruhnke
FC St. Pauli faces headwinds for trip to Mallorca – Hürzeler defends plans
FC St. Pauli is considered one of the pioneers in sustainability in Germany.
The fact that the Hamburg team is now flying to Mallorca for training in the middle of the season caused a lot of backlash on the internet.
“It's getting more and more embarrassing with you, what a bunch of hypocrites.
You preach water but drink wine,” one user commented under the club’s tweet.
Numerous similarly accusatory comments can be found online.
Coach Hürzeler immediately responded to the emerging criticism.
“First of all, I can say that of course I would have preferred to stay here,” said the trainer at the press conference on Thursday, adding that anything else would be “additional burdens for the players”.
Hürzeler also made it clear that it would not be a training camp.
“Why Mallorca?
Because there is the opportunity to train well there,” he gave the reasons.
The crew flies in a commercial airliner – low emissions
There are regular debates about sustainability in the club itself, which is why the response on the internet was to be expected for the club.
“We didn’t expect everyone to stand up and give thunderous applause for the measure,” said a spokesman for the neighborhood club, emphasizing the awareness that they were moving in a field in which there are contradictions.
Nevertheless, he cited a mobility analysis that showed that travel activities of the professional team during football games only accounted for a small proportion of pollutant emissions.
The club also stated that it would fly to Mallorca with a scheduled airline.
(jari)