Snowstorm sweeps across the country
Chaos in Hamburg: St. Pauli game against Leipzig is shaky
Jan 9, 2026 – 11:34 amReading time: 2 minutes
The snowstorm “Elli” is sweeping across Hamburg and the entire north. FC St. Pauli’s Bundesliga home game against RB Leipzig on Saturday is at risk. That’s the situation.
The host from Hamburg announced on Thursday that they were monitoring the entire situation “very closely”. “We are doing everything possible so that the game against Leipzig can take place as planned,” the Kiezkickers continue. “However, the club has to wait and see how the weather situation develops and whether there will be further heavy snowfalls.”
St. Pauli coach Alexander Blessin had spoken out on Thursday in favor of the game being played. “We assume that the game will take place. We want to play, and that’s why there are no question marks at all,” said the 52-year-old at the press conference before the first game after the Christmas break. He and his players prepared accordingly. “There is no Plan B for us,” said Blessin.
As hosts, FC St. Pauli is responsible for preparing the stadium and pitch, but says it has no influence on the traffic situation. We want to provide information about further developments on Friday. If there is no general order by Saturday, the referee will decide on the match day whether the pitch is usable. According to the DFB statutes, a decision should be made four hours before the scheduled start of the game.
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), the storm Elli will significantly worsen the situation over the course of Friday. The DWD has issued an official severe weather warning of strong drifts due to the forecast snowfall and stormy weather with gusts of up to 70 kilometers per hour.
This had already massively affected the preparation for the game in the FC St. Pauli camp. “We always looked at what time windows we had so that we might not be able to train in snowfall,” reported head coach Blessin. Despite the work of the greenkeepers and the lawn heating, it was difficult.
“But we were then able to hold our final training or our tactical training as best we could,” he said. “We didn’t build snowmen or anything, so we just focused on the orange ball.”