Bundesliga: a first-timer's primer before you plan a matchday

If you want the best atmosphere-per-euro in world football, the Bundesliga is the answer, and it is not close. Germany kept the things England gave up: huge safe-standing terraces, cheap tickets, cheap beer you can drink in your seat, and clubs that are still majority-owned by their members rather than a fund. The result is loud, full, joyful grounds at a fraction of Premier League prices. The one catch is that the biggest terraces are also the hardest tickets. This primer is the overview; when you pick a club, each ground below has its own full guide.

Famous grounds to see

The two German giants we cover in depth sit at opposite ends of the country and the mood.

• Borussia Dortmund play in front of the Yellow Wall, the Südtribüne at Signal Iduna Park, the largest standing terrace in European football and one of the genuine sights of the sport.
• Bayern Munich play at the glowing Allianz Arena, a spectacular modern ground whose atmosphere lives almost entirely in the standing Südkurve, and which is one of the more tourist-friendly big-club tickets in Europe.

This is the Yellow Wall in full voice:

Matchday culture to know

The things that make a German matchday special are exactly the things visitors from England or Spain do not expect.

Standing terraces are back, and central. German grounds kept their Stehplätze, the safe-standing terraces behind the goals, which convert to seats for European games. The terrace is the cheapest ticket and the loudest place in the ground, and it is where you want to be for the full experience.

You drink in your seat, and cheaply. There is no rule against alcohol in view of the pitch, and stadium beer is famously good and cheap, often served against a reusable-cup deposit. A Bundesliga matchday is built around beer and bratwurst in a way an English one is not.

Clubs belong to their fans. The 50+1 rule keeps most clubs majority-controlled by their members, which underpins the low prices, the fan power, and a culture of protest and organised support that runs deeper than almost anywhere. Tickets are cheap by design.

Underrated grounds and derbies

The two we cover are the giants, but the Bundesliga's magic is spread across the whole league.

• Union Berlin's Stadion An der Alten Försterei is a cult experience, a ground the fans literally helped rebuild, famous for its wall of noise and its Christmas carol singalong.
• Eintracht Frankfurt's Deutsche Bank Park produces some of the wildest European nights in Germany, and St. Pauli's Millerntor in Hamburg is the home of football's most famous countercultural, left-wing fanbase.
• Freiburg, Mönchengladbach, Köln and the rest offer loud, full, cheap grounds that would be marquee days out in most other countries.

For derbies, Der Klassiker between our own Bayern and Dortmund is the modern showpiece; the Revierderby, Dortmund against Schalke in the industrial Ruhr, is one of the most heated in Europe when the fixtures align; and the Rheinderby between Köln and Mönchengladbach is a fierce regional rivalry.

Ticket trends

Cheap and fan-friendly, with one honest catch at the very top.

By European standards, tickets are a bargain, and the terrace is the cheapest of all. Most Bundesliga clubs are gettable for a visitor who plans a little ahead, and the value is unmatched.

The two giants are the hard part. Bayern and, especially, Dortmund are dominated by members and season-ticket holders, and the famous terraces, the Südkurve and the Yellow Wall, are very hard to get as a visitor. Bayern is the more tourist-friendly of the two and often has tickets for lesser games; Dortmund's standing Wall is a genuine challenge, and a seat elsewhere in the ground is the realistic route in.

Buy direct, and mind the rules. Clubs sell through their official sites and official resale exchanges; unauthorised resale is discouraged and can void a ticket. Away allocations are generous by English standards, so following the visiting team is sometimes the easiest way into a big ground.

The bottom line

The Bundesliga is the one to send a first-timer to who wants a great, loud, cheap day out without the ticketing ordeal of England or the tourist quiet of Spain. Aim for a terrace if you can get one, drink the beer where you are standing, and consider Union, Frankfurt or St. Pauli if the two giants' big ends are sold out. When you pick a club, its full guide has the getting-there, the standing end, and the honest ticket route.