Extremely jealous of this.

What makes me sad about England is when I first started working, our factory had a sports and social club that had existed for 100+ years.

This used to be the norm, and many bigger clubs still around today (West Ham: Thames Ironworks) came from these roots. Even once they'd professionalize the Saturday 3pm kick-off time was aligned to the time factories closed so the workers could then go and watch.

Anyway long-story short, the factory got bought by a Chinese firm and they instantly shut-down all of the social and sports clubs. Despite the wages always being relatively low, people used to love working there for the social element which completely disappeared.

It's admiral how Germans have held on to their institutions compared to how we will just sell off anything to the highest bidder. I think it's a class issue where the working class here either just don't own enough to have a say, or worse don't feel they have a right to have a say in community clubs that have been there for over 100 years.