1. FC Köln

1. FC Köln are the carnival club of German football. The RheinEnergieStadion's Südkurve, holding over 14,000 standing fans, is a wall of red and white noise that never relents, even when results go against them. Köln fans sing with a joy and defiance that reflects the city's Rhineland character: loud, warm, and unapologetically celebratory.

The club anthem, "Mer stonn zo dir, FC Kölle", sung by 50,000 voices before kick-off is one of the most moving pre-match moments in German football. The Geißbock Hennes (a live billy goat mascot) parading around the pitch is a tradition dating back to 1950.

Cologne itself is one of Germany's best cities for a football weekend. The Dom (cathedral) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site directly adjacent to the Hauptbahnhof, the Altstadt beer halls serve Kölsch in tiny 0.2L glasses (the waiters just keep bringing them until you put a coaster on top), and the city's location makes Leverkusen (20 min), Düsseldorf (25 min), and Mönchengladbach (30 min) all reachable for a multi-game weekend.