German football's 'Iron Men' FC Union Berlin are currently joint top of Bundesliga 2 with Kaiserslauten. Being a non-conformist club, and as such supressed by the rlStasirl in the communist east, it's the highest position they've been in for yonks. At this rate, they could take Hertha Berlin's place in the top flight.

What's that got to do with us? Nothing really. It's Union's stadium redevelopment that's interesting.

To satisfy the requirements of the Bundesliga, the club had to update the facilities at its delapidated stadium. Not being the richest of clubs, they employed architects to design the redevelopment in a way that non-skilled workers could do the bulk of the work i.e. volunteers.

Of the 80 or so workers on site, there were less than ten professional construction workers, with the rest being made up by Union's supporters. In the first phase of the redevelopment, 1,600 volunteers put in around 90,000 hours of work. This saved the club about 3 million euros.

'Union is a social event. We’ve got the spirit of a neighbourhood club where everyone sticks together.' rl#rl



Now that is community, and the feel good vibe seems to be rubbing off on the team. What with the Reds' link up with Salford City College, I wonder whether there's scope for apprentiships and NVQs to be run in a similar way for willing volunteers.

There's where the problem would be at Salford, knowing how involved our supporters tend to get, we'd maybe scrape 16.

What a fantastic story - the whole club history, not just the stadium.

Apparently their fans even gave blood in their masses to raise funds to keep their club afloat at one point?!

Good luck to them, they deserve all the success they get!

there is already in the pipeline the new government programme to creat jobs for local unemployed with training thrown in, already Urban Vision have taken on 8 such staff members to work on the highways. Salford council could in effect do the same and get the workers working on the new stadium for nil cost to the developers paid for out of government coffers.

Great initiative. Would happily donate some of my time. I fear I may be in the minority though.

unfortunately it is a building site and from 2010 you will need a CSCS card to be doing any work there, so what is happening in Germany can not happen here.
But I would happily turn up with Hardhat clipboard and whistle to oversee the work.

CSCS cards don't take long to attain though do they? It could be wrapped in the volunteer training programme.

at £35 a pop, but as we are in partnership with Salford college perhaps they could provide the one day safety course and issue the cards.

What do Salford College get out of the deal?

That's right, our volunteers are going to build them a new campus too!!

Superb story, but I just dont think it would ever work over here. Apart from the fact that we would not even muster up half of those numbers, health & safety laws would probably rule out such a thing happening. Under CDM Regs a Principal Contractor would have to be in place and he would be in charge of the health, safety and welfare of all those volunteers. I just couldnt see a Contractor opening themselves up to those kind of risks.

much as I'd love to help the club out I think my family would say my DIY skills are testimony to the fact that I would be more of a liability. Knowing the way health and safety has gone a bit mad here I think this idea would never see the light of day. Great work over in Germany though.

Just to point out - health and safety has not gone mad - insurance companies and hysterical, clueless media outlets have. There is no health and safety law against this, but as Sheddy pointed out, the matter is whether the principal contractor would be comfortable having volunteers do the work.

Nevertheless, there must be [isome[/i rules about putting bricks, pick-axes, etc. in the hands of Salford kids.

Never mind the credit crunch, if Pev was allowed to volunteer to build the stadium there'd be a builders bum so large that it would block out the sun and cause a new ice age!!