Hoher Heinz - Matchdays : the hidden story of the Bundesliga

At 38, hes young for a manager: Heinz Hher.

A t about ten in the evening, Heinz Hher tells his wife that hes going out for a while. She doesnt ask where he is heading to. She is quite accustomed to him rarely explaining what he is up to.

The thermometer in Bochum, at the heart of Germanys coal and steel belt, is hovering around zero. All day long the city council has been battling snow and ice. Now, 180 tons of salt and sand later, all those drifts and heaps are freezing over again. Last night, there were 65 car crashes in Bochum: an 18-year-old rammed head-on into a lamppost; a 20-year-old was fired through his windscreen straight into the wall of a garage.

Heinz Hher opens up the drivers door of his silver Mercedes 190. In the windows of the flats round about, TV screens are still glowing here and there, although the closing ceremony of the Innsbruck Winter Olympics has already been and gone. Some Austrian got one of the last gold medals this afternoon, in the ski-jump. Heinz Hher could not remember the name, although he did watch the event.

Hes at the stadium in less than 15 minutes, despite the terrible conditions. He drives to his own, private rules. His main ambition is never to be first in the queue at a red light. But these rules arent about racing, theyre just designed to fill up drive-time by setting himself random missions. One time, he decided that he had to do a 300-mile motorway journey to Bochum at a steady ton. No bursts of speed allowed, just cruise at 100mph for the whole three hours.

At the darkened stadium, his helpers arrive right on time. August Liese and Erwin Hffken are the backroom staff who organise everything for the VfL Bochum first team, be it a new striker or a crate of beer. They dont need floodlights: the snow that blankets the pitch reflects enough light to illuminate the night. Two days from now, Tuesday at 7.30pm, Bochum are playing their great local rivals, Schalke 04, in the Bundesliga and Heinz Hher, now in his fourth year as manager, has carefully prepped his team for the derby except that now, hes going to make sure it doesnt happen.

Liese and Hffken know where old Rickenberg, the groundsman, keeps his buckets. They go to the showers, and fill them with water. Theres only one shower-room in the Bochum stadium, so after the final whistle both teams just have to shower down together, the winners and the losers, the foulers and the fouled. Unbelievable, for the Bundesliga; unbelievable, even for a local league, in this modern age, 1976!

The three of them drag the buckets onto the pitch. The cold bites into their hands. Heinz Hher feels like the metal handle of the bucket is getting welded to his fingers. Must be way below zero now. They make for the penalty area to their right. Heinz Hher hasnt actually got a real plan. All he thought was, they would cover the pitch with ice. Now he sees what a job thats going to be. He chucks the water from his bucket, and watches as a small puddle forms in the snow. How many buckets are they going to need for the whole pitch? 10,000? 100,000? Without a word between them, the three men hurry back and forth between the showers and the penalty area. Thats over 150 metres for every bloody bucket, for every little puddle. At least the freezing wind is actually turning the puddles to ice.

By midnight, all theyve managed is to ice over both the penalty areas. And thats going to have to do.

The following morning, theres no change to the answering machine at the box-office at Bochum: A number of Standing Tickets are still available for the home game against Schalke 04 on Tuesday, 17 February at 7.30pm. End of message. Thank you for your call.

The club is expecting a crowd of 20,000. The sports editor of one local newspaper, Franz Borner, writes: When it comes to derbies against Schalke, Bochum have often taken it to the next level. So heres what I say, and may our boys treat it as an order: take it to the next level, Bochum and take out the Schalkers! What the hell is Borner on, shouting his head off like this? Hes been getting on Hhers nerves for months with his demands.

In the living room of Hhers family home, 26 Kaulbachstrae, the grey plastic telephone rings. You can get brightly coloured telephones these days, but the post office wants one mark ten extra per month for them. Its Liese on the phone: the city officials are meeting at the stadium at midday to see if the pitch is playable.

Theres still a cold wind blowing down from the Alps over the Nordrhein-Westfalen region, but sleet and snow are only due to fall here and there, and the temperature could rise as high as 5C. Most Bundesliga games on Tuesday and Wednesday look to be safe.

Dont worry, says Liese, the ice on the boxes will hold out, and Ottokars got the city officials in the palm of his hand.

Who said I was worried? answers Heinz Hher.

Ottokar Wst is the president of Bochum and he was sitting right there in their usual pub, the Gasthaus Mense, on Sunday morning, when Heinz Hher had his big idea: what if we make sure the game never happens?