# 34 Sturm Graz (Home, 2008/2009)

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I guess Sturm Graz first got football fans attention not because their good Champions League campaigns, but because they named their stadium after Arnold Schwarzenneger. That's right, the muscle-man, and austrian-born Governor of California was important enough in his home region to see the local stadium holding his long name.

The stadium was built in 2000 and 2001, when Sturm was doing quite well both in domestic and european competitions. I do remember them playing in the Champions League, and I found out about their ground's bizarre name in a UEFA magazine, when I was no more than 10 or something. It didn't make much sense back then, either.

Look at how much money they spent in those letters.
But a few years ago, everything changed. The local hero was no more a local hero. In 2005, Schwarzenegger refused to stop the execution of a former gang-member, that actually changed his life and had been working for many many years in preventing kids from forming or joining criminal gangs. The issue was object of long discussions and criticism in Austria, and people in Graz didn't really want to have their local stadium named after Arnold (maybe they never did). The muscle-man himself wasn't too happy that austrians were so pissed at him because of an execution, so he asked the City Council to remove his name from the Arena.

Amazing.
Yep, that saved them a lot of money.
And here is a picture of the UPC Arena (formerly known as Arnold Schwarzenegger Arena), home of Sturm Graz and Grazer AK:


I got the shirt a few months ago, as a Christmas gift from my girlfriend. It was the perfect thing, and there's no way I could complain, as I picked it myself. I've seen many on eBay, but I was really into this one. It was a special design for to celebrate the club's centenary, and is plain black. But the sponsors make sure it looks a bit colourful.



Overall, it's a nice shirt. It's not that usual to find european shirts with such big sponsors, except in Scandinavia. They do have some heavy sponsored kits.

The special logo 1909-2009.


Here's a old Sturm Graz kit that might be familiar to some of you:


It'd be cool to get that one.

Anyway, after very tough years (when the club faced severe financial problems), things seem to be back on track in Graz. They were champions last year, beating favourites Red Bull Salzburg and Austria Wien. Nice one.



And here comes the best part: do you know who's leading Sturm Graz to glory right now? The legendary FRANCO FODA. A former German international, that was never a star anywhere, except in Portugal. His name is some kind of myth around here: many people believed he didn't really exist, but yes, Franco FODA is here to stay. In case you don't speak portuguese, imagine his name was Franco Fuck. It'd be funny, right?


Foda first came to public notoriety in Portugal when Benfica played against Bayer Leverkusen (Champions League or UEFA Cup). I'm too young to remember the match, but people say journalists were quite embarassed and tried to figure out nice ways to say his name without saying FODA. Not easy.

But Franco is not the only Foda in Sturm. His son, Sandro Foda, currently plays for the Graz side too. I'm sure he'll face a portuguese team sometime: it's destiny.

Here's Sandro Foda in a nice shirt.
Maybe I'm spending a few pounds to print FODA 69 in the back of my shirt. It'd be a sucess.

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