What a cool milestone! FC Bayern's 8-1 win over Mainz 05 was the more-than successful conclusion to a debut season: for the fifth time in total, all the tickets in the special contingent that the German record champions make available to the fan clubs' youth representatives were taken up up on Saturday. A total of 27 fan clubs took advantage of this offer, which was introduced in the summer, in the first year. Children and young people aged 6 to 17 had already been able to spend a very special day with Bayern against Heidenheim, VfB Stuttgart, Hoffenheim and Werder Bremen.
"For many decades, our fans have traditionally organised themselves into fan clubs, in which fan culture around FC Bayern is lived regionally," explains Markus Meindl, director of fan and fan club support. "With the introduction of the youth representative, we wanted to inspire young Bayern fans to get involved in the social environment of fan clubs, because fan clubs have an important social function as clubs and create spaces for social interaction."
A special highlight on Saturday was once again the Meet & Greet with Berni before the game, where the Bayern mascot took more than half an hour of his time for the girls and boys, who had come in various FCB jerseys or in the training gear of their home clubs. They eagerly waved their FCB flags and scarves during the goal fest featuring Harry Kane, Thomas Müller, Leon Goretzka and colleagues. At the end of the day, everyone was delighted with their visit to the stadium - and the kids all agreed: they would love to be at every FC Bayern game. After all, they brought good luck.
With the introduction of the new special role of the youth representative, the German record champions are developing additional, contemporary offers for children and young people. This season, there was the opportunity to obtain tickets for five home matches in order to organise trips for children and young people to the Allianz Arena. Each year, every youth representative can request a children and youth package from the fan and fan club support department; fan clubs with youth representatives can also apply for a fan club visit especially for children and young people as part of the traditional Christmas visits. In January, Jamal Musiala visited the fan club "La Bestia Negra" together with Berni and the Kids Club (more information HERE).
A survey is currently being conducted among the almost 220 youth representatives to find out how the German record champions' programme for young fans can be developed further after such a promising debut season. Thorsten Furth, youth representative of the fan club "Rot weiß Gollachtal", said after the visit to the Allianz Arena on Saturday: "I took on this task because I think it's exactly the perfect age to introduce the children to the right club. It's important to me that they are given the opportunity to come to the stadium in the first place and that they can cheer in a block where there are mainly young people or children in the stands."Meindl concludes: "The great popularity of our model with the new youth representatives shows that, together with the fan clubs, we can also succeed in winning over young fans in the future to organise the exchange and coming together of Bayern fans in all their diversity."
The home game against Mainz also saw several long-serving members honoured for their loyalty to the club:
