It happened: Beautiful sunshine in Hamburg, perfect lawn to play football, almost 200 excited spectators at the sidelines and the bankers did it - after four painful years, they finally won again.

Already after five minutes it was clear: Lehman Brothers was enough of a disaster for the financial world; no more further embarrassment would be accepted. The shipowners’ regular matchwinner, striker Christian Kockentiedt from Intersee, found himself three times painfully fouled. The owners’ team, on average roughly 15 years older than the bankers’ team did not manage to overcome the defense around Hypovereinsbank’s Oliver Trennt. Had the banks only been as solid in securitizing loans …

The longer the match lasted, the more confident the team became. Aykut Ekeci, also from Hypovereinsbank, organized the midfield; Erwin „Usain“ Keller, Dutch player from Commerzbank, imposed a constant threat for the owners’ goal. And finally, in a moment of great confusion in the owners’ defense, he scored at the end of the first half. After the break, the owners strengthened the offense with Dirk Rößler from NSC, Rafael Ben-Ari of ZIM Lines and Peter Oltmann of Schiffahrtsgesellschaft Oltmann. Everyone at the HSV stadium expected the draw. But it was again Erwin Keller who proved that the Dutch have learned from Bernd Hölzenbein’s famous dive in the 1974 World Cup final: He threw himself against Albrecht Gundermann of Salomon Invest and referee Marc Richter decided to give a penalty. Aykut Ekeci left no chance for the owners’ brilliant goalie Heiner Thormälen of NSB.

Fierce attacks from the owners were the answer, lead by Andreas Schulte-Westhof from Döhle on the left side and Holger Strack of Rickmers on the right side. After hitting the bankers’ goal posts five times, the last goal was finally scored by the bankers’ team: Mike McCleery (Marine Money) with a beautiful header buried the hope of the owners.

As every year the match was followed by an after-match-party in „Die Raute“ within the „HSH Nordbank Arena“. Aykut Ekci was awarded the „Player of the Match“, Christian Rongstock and Ingo Nebendahl won tickets for an Europa League match as the best fans. € 2,000 were raised for International seamen’s club DUCKDALBEN.

We would like to thank Sabine Beuth of Hypovereinsbank AG for the organisation of the match, law firm Ince & Co. for sponsoring the children’s entertainment and Salomon Invest for sponsoring the HSV tickets for the best fans.

Please mark in your agenda: The 36th match Bankers versus Shipowners will take place in Hamburg on Wednesday, September 1st 2010.

Best regards

The Organization Committee