FC St. Pauli, Hamburg's lesser-known Bundesliga club

FC St. Pauli gets its name from the St. Pauli area of Hamburg where it is based. The sports club is huge, with over 27,000 playing members across a range of sports, including rugby, baseball, boxing, American football and, of course, football. The football team has been up and down between the second and first divisions of the Bundesliga, establishing a solid track record in both. If you're interested in German football with some real personality, you can buy or sell FC St. Pauli tickets on StubHub.

Sudden promotion from amateur to professional soccer

FC St. Pauli hasn't had the most successful Bundesliga first division history. They peaked in 2010, which was their best year in the league, in fact. For over 15 years, they struggled to break through into the professional leagues, spending most of their playing time in Regionalliga Nord, one of the regional amateur divisions. Despite having won this league a few times, it was only when the second division of the Bundesliga was formed that they found themselves promoted straight into this tier, which must have come as something of a culture shock to the players! They didn't flinch, however, and remained there for the next three years. Then in 1977, they managed to break through into the top tier of the Bundesliga but struggled substantially and were automatically relegated at the end of their first season. The club had received a huge boost, however, and they returned to the second division with renewed vigour, supported by a growing legion of fans who bought FC St. Pauli tickets for every home game at the club's Millerntor Stadion.

Beating the Intercontinental Cup champions

FC St. Pauli has one claim to fame above all others – an event that spawned thousands of special club T-shirts to commemorate the occasion in a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek manner. The year was 2002 and the team hadn't played top flight football in nearly 15 years when they played an exhibition match against FC Bayern Munich, who had just lifted the Intercontinental Cup, at the time considered the world club championship, combining the top teams from Europe and South America. FC St. Pauli pulled off an incredibly unlikely win, leading some wit in the team's fan club to print cheeky "World Club Champion Beaters", which sold out in days and became a very popular item on the streets of Hamburg. Being one of two main teams in the city makes it a natural rival of Hamburger SV, and the team has also developed a keen competitive relationship with Hansa Rostock. This colourful team is always great fun to watch and a team that doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, which is always a pleasure to encounter. See them in action for yourself with FC St. Pauli tickets on StubHub.