"Aye, ta Yannis. Much obliged." answered Gunnar, closing the door of The Auld Creaky behind him and stepping inside as Yannis turned off the radio.
"...AFTER THEIR IMPRESSIVE REARGUARD DISPLAY. THE TERNS BEGAN TO ATTACK MORE REGULARLY IN THE SECOND HALF, WITH THE RUNS OF LEPKA AND VAN SORENSEN CATCHING THE EYE. WITH ELMSVIKUR RESTED AFTER THE BACKYARD SPORTS MATCH, IT WAS LEWIS BERGEN WHO FINALLY OPENED THE SCORING WITH A CHARGING RUN THROUGH THREE TRYIENNE DEFENDERS BEFORE ARROWING A THUNDERBOLT OF A SHOT PAST THE KEEPER. WITH NO TIME FOR THE OPPOSITION TO SETTLE, THE TERNS ROCKED THE NASJONALE ONCE MORE WITH A DELIGHTFUL PASSING MOVE THAT ENDED IN EYVINDUR SUDESVAL TUCKING THE BALL AWAY FROM CLOSE RANGE. WINS FOR MILCHAMA AND KINITARIA MEAN THE TERNS CAN'T RELAX ON THEIR REST MATCHDAY HOWEVER, AND JOACHIM SCHWARTZ IS REPORTED TO HAVE ALREADY BOOKED THE TEAM ON A TRAINING TRIP TO FURTHEST KURIL AS THEY ATTEM-..." *click*
"Building up a bit of steam now," noted Gunnar, sipping on his pint, "nice to see."
"Aye," agreed Yannis, making a large and not at all subtle head motion towards the large trophy on the bar in front of him, "shame about the rest day really, could do with using this momentum going forwards. Ahem ahem."
"That's a nasty cough, Yannis." said Gunnar, oblivious.
Yannis sighed, and as Larsen came in to regale the duo with another tale of matches old, he put the trophy away on the shelf behind him.
'Cleanest Glasses Award - For Outstanding Achievements in the World of Glass Polishing - Awarded to Yannis Emilsson, The Auld Creaky'
FOOTBALL AND ACTIVISM
The links between political activism and football have always been rather stronger in the cities of the more far flung nations of the region; Novaya Sibir Reds, SK Matua, and Steffansson Island to name but a few clubs with large socialist supporters clubs. Perhaps most famous amongst them however, are the fans of FK Weisshaus.
In the late thirties, the dictatorship of General Virjonen over Northbrook was visibly shaking. Public bust ups with the head of his military and other ministers had damaged his standing despite attempted propaganda, and the people of Northbrook finally began to sense that their nine year spell of misery could be coming to an end with the right amount of encouragement. Public meetings of any large scale were, for the most part, banned, with one key exception. Football.
It is said that the General was a huge fan of the game, and was a frequent visitor to Northbrook Zenith FC, and as such he had always maintained that bye laws should allow large groups of fans to attend football matches, provided there was a highly visible police presence. This would prove to be a huge tactical error on his part, as the fans of FK Weisshaus would, more so than any other fan groups, use their matches to demonstrate against the General.
These fan protests were usually quashed pretty quickly, but as the 1938 season drew on, the numbers of arrests dwindled, and the numbers of police going missing on duty increased, along with abandoned equipment in the doldrums of the stadium, leading to suspicions of police defectors. General Virjonen soon placed a ban on FK Weisshaus playing at their home stadium of Zulchev Iceway, and mid-season it would burn down in suspicious circumstances that only enraged the local populous further. When it was discovered that three innocent caretakers had been victims of the fire, the public opinion finally reached tipping point.
One autumn evening in October, the members of the two largest supporters groups in Weisshaus, swelled massively by scores of Northbrook collegues, played a football match in the park adjoining the ruins of the stadium. As FKW Red Dogs and Weisshaus White Hands played their friendly, those supporters that weren't playing protested wildly with the police, citing the law permitting groups watching football matches in their defence. The police had none of it however, and soon clashes were spreading throughout the city as the outnumbered Weisshaus tried to reclaim the streets and declare order.
It was a losing battle. Long before military reinforcements could arrive form the capital, Weisshaus was in the hands of the supporters. Two days later, after a series of skirmishes on the road to the Northbrook ferry, the people of the capital eventually rose up themselves in massive protests as the police were busy looking at the problem in Weisshaus. As the walls of Virjonen's compund were breached, the General himself fled to Kuril and lived the rest of his life in exile, dying of heart disease in 1942.
THE WEISSHAUS SURGE
The years following the revolution may have been full of democratic developments and important political manoeuvering, but on the football pitch they were just as important for Weisshaus. Incredibly, despite the funds required to rebuild and rename their stadium Peoples' Park, the Weisshaus squad shot up the division season after season. Fan numbers increased year on year, and in a scene that nobody would have thought possible just five years earlier, thanks to the surge of good will and confidence flowing through the streets of Weisshaus, FK were challenging for the title.
A mid-season slump saw them record consecutive defeats to Northbrook Diamonds, Northbrook Zenith, Grass-Lisch AFC, as well as an embarrassing humiliation in the Latitude Cup by Franz Josef minnows Hospitaliers, but the revolutionaries of Peoples' Park weren't done yet. A ten match winning streak towards the end of the season put them thrillingly in pole position going into the final two matchdays. A nervous draw with Pekarik South SC in the penultimate fixture left them two points clear of Northbrook Diamonds in second place, with the Diamonds coming to Peoples' Park for the last day of the season in what promised to be a thrilling match.
And so it proved, with both teams trading the lead before star defender and young hometown hero Kalle Kubarev scored a late header to ensure Weisshaus lifted the league trophy for the first time in their history.
LEGACY
FK Weisshaus thrillingly retained their title the next year, before a long period of dominance for Zenith and Diamonds replaced them at the top of the table, and after five seasons of slump, the club were forced to part with Kubarev. The defender, still only 27 years of age at the time, went on to cement his place in the Northbrook hall of fame by becoming a club hero at his second club, whilst maintaining great relations with the fans of FKW as he did so. A truly universal figure, he went onto become the NFA chairman in 1965, serving for eleven years before retiring a happy man. Tragically, just three months after this, his fishing boat reported a scratchy mayday message off the shores of Pekarik one weatherless summer's evening, and the frantic search was called off after two days.
One year later to the day, Northbrook club officials were guests of honour at Peoples' Park, as the supporters associations erected a fourth monument at the stadium for Kubarev, to go with the three for the caretakers who lost their lives in the Zulchev Iceway.
