Stuttgart Fans Walk to Stavanger for Rematch, Arrive Before Team Bus
After Stuttgart's 3:1 Champions League win over Viking Stavanger, the club's ultras have begun a permanent overland commute to Norway, forcing UEFA to schedule the return leg around their walking pace.
STUTTGART — Following VfB Stuttgart's 3:1 Champions League victory over Viking Stavanger, the club's supporters have begun a permanent overland commute to Norway, with the first wave arriving at Stavanger's SR-Bank Arena before the team bus had left Baden-Württemberg.
The supporters, organized by a new group calling itself the Neckar Pilgrims, set off on foot from Stuttgart's Schlossplatz within minutes of the final whistle. By the time the players reported for training the next morning, the fans had already crossed into Denmark, where they were joined by a second column pushing shopping carts full of bratwurst and away tickets.
«We have decided that the away leg is now a permanent condition,» said Pilgrims coordinator Markus Hügel, speaking from a tented camp outside Aarhus. «The team can fly. We will walk. Whoever gets there first chooses the songs.»
UEFA, faced with the logistical reality of a fan base that refuses to return home, has reportedly asked its competition committee to consider scheduling all future Stuttgart fixtures along the walking route. A provisional calendar would have the return leg played in Stavanger, the following match in Hamburg, and the one after that in a field near the Danish border where the fans have already erected a scoreboard.
Viking Stavanger, for its part, has offered to meet the Pilgrims halfway, but only if Stuttgart agrees to play the second leg in walking shoes. The club has not yet responded.
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