Bundesliga
Fan spokesman Kessen cannot guarantee an end to the protests
Fans had been protesting for weeks against investors’ entry into the German Football League. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
Investors’ entry into the German Football League has stopped – and with it the fan protest? Even fan spokesman Kessen cannot answer the question clearly. But he has a suspicion.
Fan spokesman Thomas Kessen cannot guarantee that the stopped investor entry into the In the German Football League, the protests in the stadiums also end.
You will definitely see “one or two funny posters” at the weekend, said the spokesman for the fan umbrella organization “Our Curve” of the German Press Agency. However, Kessen does not expect any further provoked interruptions, sometimes lasting over 30 minutes: “I would at least be very surprised if someone else did that now,” he explained.
“This protest was designed very individually locally, was driven forward, and there was no central orchestration – accordingly there is no central orchestration as is being celebrated now,” explained Kessen. The DFL had announced that they would no longer continue negotiations to conclude the planned billion-dollar deal.
Numerous game interruptions
Organized fan scenes in the country in particular had been protesting against the entry of an investor for weeks. A number of games in the top national leagues had to be interrupted in recent weeks because, among other things, fans threw tennis balls onto the field. Some games were even close to being canceled. The DFL wanted to collect one billion euros from a financial investor for a percentage share of the TV revenue.
However, fan spokesman Kessen does not expect any financial problems for the Bundesliga as a result of the failed deal. “If there’s one thing there is enough in German football, it’s money. It’s just absolutely unequal and unfairly distributed,” he said on ZDF’s “Morgenmagazin”. Kessen described the international comparison with the top leagues in England and Spain as a “rat race to see who makes more money. German football is unique and has a lot to offer. All the member-based clubs, the participation of everyone who cares about football “That needs to be strengthened; the DFL could build a vision for the future on that.”