The weather could not have been more perfect for football as this past Sunday, various BVB fan clubs fought it out to see how would get to lift the Brinkhoff's Cup as winners of the 28th South Stand Championship. This year's edition took place across four separate pitches within the historic Rote Erde Stadium.

For this year's edition of the tournament, the Dortund Fan Project once again arranged for a huge pool of competing teams to take part. A total of 48 BVB fan clubs, from near and far, were present at the Rote Erde. Among them were, to name but a few, the ''South Winners'' from Belgium, the ''BVB-Fanclub London'', the ''BVB-Fanclub Letzebuerg South of Luxembourg'', the ''Polish Borussen,'' the ''BVB Tigers Belgium'' and the ''Dutch Vikings''. In total, over 1,000 participants took part in the event, which was attended by BVB legend Siggi Held and Black & Yellow goalkeeping icon Teddy de Beer.

Understandably enough, the long-running main sponsor of the South Stand Championship (Brauerei Brinkhoff's) did not pass on the opportunity to put together a fun programme of events for the participating teams. A special photography session ensured that each fan club went home with a team photo by which to remember the day. The "Brinkhoff's Biergarten" as well as the many stadium tours held at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK and the top-notch hospitality and atmosphere in the Rote Erde were a wonderful complement to what was a beautiful summer's day.

Trophy presentation to be held in front of 80,000 fans at SIGNAL IDUNA PARK

The club's official fan support and fan departments were on site to answer many questions about BVB, while several fan clubs took the opportunity to give a presentation of the diverse array of activities in which they are involved. Young members of the Black & Yellow faithful were particularly well catered for - they even had the chance to take have their photo taken with the club mascot EMMA.

It took 120 matches to narrow the field down to just four sides: in the first semi-final, the fan club ''Unser Stolz'' (''Our pride'') defeated ''Dortmund Ems Borussen'' by four goals to nil, while in the second, ''Geithe-Borussen'' got the better off ''Derbe Borussen'' by three goals to one. In an action-packed final, ''Unser Stolz'' were able to grab a last-gasp equaliser which made it 2-2 and meant that the match went to a penalty shoot-out. ''Unser Stolz'' held their nerve to be crowned champions in the most dramatic of circumstances. The winning side, who hail from the municipality of Reken in the eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, can now look forward to the trophy presentation ceremony, which will take place in front of over 80,000 fans at Signal Iduna Park.

Everyone at the Fan Project would like to thank the players, referees, helpers, staff at the Rote Erde Stadium, Brinkhoff's Brauerei and all spectators who turned out for what was a fantastic day.

Fan Project Dortmund

BVB-TV: South Stand Championship 2019