Great danes PROBABLY THE BEST DERBY IN EUROPE
Colour and atmosphere ADAM MICHIE takes in all the IF of FC Kobenhavn against Brondy
THINK fierce European derby matches and you probably won’t look much further than North London, Glasgow, Rome or perhaps Istanbul. In an unassuming, almost forgotten corner of Europe however, wedged between the North Sea and the Baltic, two of the continent’s less recognised teams clash in a firecracker of an occasion.
The picturesque coastal city of Copenhagen is an often overlooked destination on the European map. It has a familiar western aesthetic but a self-assured ambivalence to life’s troubles that results in a wonderfully laid-back pace of life. To say Copenhagen is a quiet backwater, however, would do a disservice to a city that was once at the heart of Europe’s commercial superhighway and is steeped in as much history and tradition as many of the continent’s larger metropolises.
The difference between them and their continental counterparts, it seems, is that the Danes don’t feel the need to shout about it. They have perfected the art of taking a few otherwise mundane things and making them incredible. Bacon, beer, pastries and multicoloured building blocks being their most recognisable gifts to mankind.
This same attitude is reflected in their foot- ball. Despite a dearth of Danish success at club level, the national side’s surprise triumph at Euro 92 (after initially failing to qualify and being reinstated in war-torn Yugoslavia’s place) is testament to a nation who, while content to sit at the fringes, dares you to underestimate them.
The Copenhagen derby, known locally as the ‘New Firm’, pits FC Kobenhavn (Copenhagen in English) against Brondby IF.
In their current guise FCK have only been around since the summer of 1992 and, on the face of it, appear to be the new kids on the block in relation to their cross city rivals.
In reality, FCK is an amalgamation of two older clubs, one of whom, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub (KB), is the oldest club in continental Europe. Between KB and Boldklub 03 (FCK’s other parent club), these capital clubs dominated the first six decades of the Danish championship, winning 22 between them.
By contrast, Brondby, based at Vilfort Park, about 15kms outside the city centre, though founded in 1964, are a modern success story.
Emerging from amateur roots in the Danish sixth tier, the club took the championship (and the Superliga, founded in 1991) by storm, winning ten titles between 1985 and 2005.
Since then, however, the tide has certainly been in FCK’s favour with the the Lions taking the crown six times. This tug of war between the two capital sides has fostered a mutual dislike and, like two siblings occupying the same bedroom, proximity, shared culture and the thirst for one-upmanship all comes to boiling point whenever they meet.
In an odd way, the football match itself is almost a sideshow to the main event played out in the stands. On a sunny Sunday afternoon in early March, small bunches of spectators dressed variously in white, blue and black and draped in scarves, began to snake their way towards the Telia Parken stadium, home of FCK since their rebirth in 1992.
With over an hour to kick off the show had already begun. To our right, a two-tier stand, the lower of which was packed out with white shirts, flags and banners. To our left, almost too close for comfort, a single tier stand backed by a wall of glass was awash with bright yellow, like the sulphurous mouth of a volcano; and no less volatile.
The two banks of fans, separated by 100 yards of grass, faced off, seemingly taking it in turns to send orchestrated roars of noise in each other’s direction.