My name is Ian McNee, born in Seaham Harbour. I’ve lived here in Germany for the last 36 years, and I’m Vice Chairman of the German Black Cats.
On Saturday, the Lads played in Germany for the first time in 10 years, and as it coincided with the foundation of our fan club, the German Black Cats, 10 years ago, we decided to try and lay on a few things that our fellow fans could do whilst in the city of Augsburg, apart from just going to the match.
I’ve no idea if anyone took up the opportunity to do a guided tour of the city (in English) or visited any of the museums (free for anyone wearing a Sunderland strip or scarf), but when the Fanfest kicked off at 11 am in the Stadtmarkt, there were about 100 fans present, with more coming all the time. There was a solo guitarist to keep us entertained, and when he played ‘Wise Men Say’, there was no holding back.
About 1.30 pm, we started making our way to the stadium, which is about 6 km outside of the town. Normally, there’s a tram which takes you to the stadium directly, but unfortunately, the city council decided to do some rail work that weekend, so we had to get a different tram to another stop, from where a shuttle bus brought us to the ground. By the way, public transport is always included in the price of the match ticket on match day over here. Price of a seat ticket? €15.
Once there, we got involved in the ‘Family Day’, which all the German clubs hold at the last home friendly before the season starts. There was a bouncy castle, face painting, and ‘shotty in’ for the kids, and loads of beer and food for the grown-ups. It was a great atmosphere, with everyone mixing freely, and we got into all sorts of conversations with the Augsburg fans. Not only that, we were also on the lookout for German-based Sunderland fans (expats and native-born Germans) who were given one of our flyers with information about how to contact us (always on the lookout for new members).
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Fans of Sunderland celebrate their victory after the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Fans of Sunderland celebrate their victory after the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
Sunderland AFC via Getty Images
Once inside the stadium, there were about 300 Sunderland fans, divided into two groups. Unfortunately, Sunderland didn’t even start giving out information about how to obtain match tickets until last week, so we offered, over our Facebook page, to point fans in the right direction, and they got seats next to us, which was next to where the away fans are normally ‘parked’. What we didn’t know was that Augsburg closed the entire end where the away fans go, and so the rest of the Sunderland fans were given tickets in the block directly opposite ours. Nevertheless, we made ourselves heard, although the synchronised singing was a bit disjointed. After the game, which you will all have read about elsewhere, those that were still standing met up in a Biergarten near the main railway station to finish off what was a glorious day.
We tried our best, and I hope that all who attended were not disappointed with our efforts. We even managed to get the weather to behave, although we might have to adjust the temperature a bit next time. Hopefully, SAFC won’t wait another 10 years before they come over again. A lot of folks don’t know that Sunderland is the twin town of Essen, and according to Rob Mason (the club historian), the two teams have never played each other. It’s the 80th anniversary of the twinning in 5 years, and we’ll be 15 years old. Any chance of a friendly in 2030?
Special thanks go to Gerhard Seckler and Augsburg Calling 07 for helping us to make everything possible, but most of all to our Chairman, Martin Steffner, who went above and beyond to make it all possible. We couldn’t wish for a better chairman, and we are very lucky to have him. Cheers, marra.
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Fans of Sunderland during the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Fans of Sunderland during the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
Sunderland AFC via Getty Images
Unfortunately, I’ve got a bit of a bugbear about the weekend. Over the years, we, as a fan club, have tried to build up a relationship with the club that we all follow. Sometimes it wasn’t easy; some owners weren’t interested, and Chris Waters, the club’s liaison officer, was ploughing a lone furrow and was snowed under permanently. This has improved over the last few years, with International Fans’ Day becoming an annual event. Unfortunately, we need to plan our comeovers well in advance, and sometimes we only got a couple of months’ notice for the IFD, which is why we also organise a visit just for our fan club. We thought we’d cracked it last year when Chris announced that our branch was one of the eight most important Sunderland fan clubs globally. This was reflected in the fact that when we came over in February for the Hull home game, Chris arranged for us to do a stadium tour, a meet-and-greet with the players after the game, and access to the VIP bars afterwards. He also helped us to get tickets for the play-off final, something for which I will remain eternally grateful.
When the friendly was announced, our chairman, Martin, immediately got in touch with Chris to offer any help we could provide in getting the fans to and from the game and making their stay as enjoyable as possible. The email went unanswered, and in spite of further emails and attempts to contact the club, we heard nothing. This makes it all the more remarkable that we managed to get the weekend in Augsburg off the ground despite the absolute lack of assistance from the club. I realise we are starting a new adventure in the Premier League next week, and everybody is running around like headless chickens, but without fans, the club is nothing. Please don’t ignore us, because we’ll never ignore you.
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Granit Xhaka of Sunderland signs autographs for fans after the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
AUGSBURG, GERMANY - AUGUST 09: Granit Xhaka of Sunderland signs autographs for fans after the pre-season friendly match between Augsburg and Sunderland at WWK ARENA on August 09, 2025 in Augsburg, Germany. (Photo by Daniela Porcelli/Sunderland AFC/Sunderland AFC via Getty Images)
Sunderland AFC via Getty Images