This week’s #FloodlightFriday disaster comes from issue 13 of Norwich fanzine The Citizen right outta Spring 1991. 50p would buy you a fanzine with a fully acceptable garish colour but far too much text on the cover. This was quite rightly complaining about the FA cup semi final ticket allocation and prices but doesn’t mention the big question; Why the hell was Hillsborough even back in use by then?

Anyway, though I know you are desperate for news of the Dave Stringer interview we’re here for floodlights so let’s get right to it. The fanzine had a great feature whereby fans sent a match report and some holiday photos from whatever god awful place they had been to.

As you know, this feature is all about terrible photos and this episode does not dissapoint. No messing, no holiday photos, just one indescribably bad photo of Bayern Munich’s former home, the Olympic Stadion.

There are a few startling things about this piece.

1. I had to check what actually was the floodlight in this photo, a fault makes it look like one of the roof supports is illuminated.
2. It claims to be the Olympic stadion ‘yesterday’…the day before the game I assume which would explain the lack of fans and with this being 1991 there is no way the fanzine would have been printed in time anyway. Why would you chose the day before to take a photo as proof of being at a match?
3. Most interesting of all, the fanzine is dated spring 1991 but the match apparently took place on 10th August 1991. Myles is clearly a time traveller though you’d think that if you were you might choose something more widely known than The Citizen to announce that, Wogan perhaps?

Myles thinks a stadium with only half a roof over is better than anything he’s seen in Britain so he’d clearly never been to Chesterfield and Saltergate which had half a roof over the Compton side and nothing over the away end or toilets, a far more entertaining and invigorating prospect on a wet winter afternoon in Derbyshire.

Times have of course changed, there is mention of 8 clubs vying for what is now known as the Bayernliga and Bayern are really not that good without Harry Kane. Myles also mentions the blight of the domination of 2 or 3 clubs in England. Great that so much has changed 35 years on..

In a WSC style I’ll mention that Hansa have moved farthest away, despite being the longest serving club from East Germany in the Bundesliga – playing in it for a decade between 1995 and 2005 they are now in the third division. That is of course if you are discounting the wasteland outside Munich that you have to travel to to get to the Corparena that Bayern play in, slightly less accessible than Glanford Park if you are driving. I just read that “The Allianz Arena offers easy access for those arriving on two wheels. The route via Marienplatz from the city centre is 10.7 km of generally flat terrain” That’s discounting the average temperature of -3 in January in Munich plus the availability of excellent german beer in the stadium (options include Munchner Hell, Weißbier, and Radler…)

I’ll finish with a better picture of the floodlights which were of course the 2nd best thing about the Olympic stadion after half a roof. Football was still played there until a few years ago with Türkgücü Munich of the regionalliga using it. It was also used for athletics in 2022. More recently the likes of AC/DC, Taylor Swift, Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Harry Styles, P!nk and Bruce have also “played” there.