Fan protests
Watzke appeals: Don’t push the escalation point any further
Stadium employees collect tennis balls that fans threw onto the field to protest against investors in the DFL. photo
© Bernd Thissen/dpa
Protests are expected again in German football stadiums this weekend. The head of the DFL supervisory board addresses the fans and tries to allay their worries about an investor.
In view of the violent protests against the planned investor entry, DFL supervisory board chairman Hans-Joachim Watzke German Football League made an appeal to the fans.
“I ask the fan scenes at this point not to push the point of escalation any further! Our offer to talk stands, we are all of course ready to have these conversations,” said the 64-year-old in the “Bild” interview: “We all have to accept our responsibility for German football. If you cancel a game, you are doing massive damage to your own club.”
Call for de-escalation
On the last few match days there were protests against the DFL in football stadiums across Germany, during which, among other things, tennis balls and other objects flew onto the pitch, protest posters were shown and insulting chants were chanted. Many Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga games had to be interrupted, sometimes several times and for many minutes. Protests are also expected this weekend.
“Now the point has come to call on everyone involved to de-escalate. Everyone has to approach each other in this way,” said Watzke. The managing director of runner-up Borussia Dortmund can understand critics of the decision, but: “It just has to remain respectful and not escalate any further!” Watzke viewed the banner at last Friday’s second division northern duel between Hamburger SV and Hannover 96, with 96 managing director Martin Kind in the crosshairs, as a “hideous individual derailment. Something like that shouldn’t happen.”
Hanover’s club management had instructed Kind to vote against the investor entry at the general meeting in December. However, the voting results and the public confessions of the respondents suggest that Kind voted yes and thus helped the DFL plan gain the necessary majority. The 79-year-old himself refers to the secret vote and refuses to provide any information about his vote. “To this day I don’t know how Martin Kind voted,” said Watzke: “Nobody really knows.”
Demands for a new vote
But calls for a new vote are increasing among professional clubs. On Thursday it became known that 1. FC Cologne had sent a letter to the DFL Presidium about this matter and wanted to submit a formal application as soon as possible “in order to exempt the DFL Presidium from the final mandate issued by the general meeting”. The ARD Sportschau quoted from the letter. The decision regarding investor involvement should therefore fall back to the 36 clubs in the Bundesliga and 2nd Bundesliga. If an extraordinary general meeting is required for this, 1. FC Cologne will also request this.
“We as the Presidium have been given a binding final mandate. But if we have the feeling that the majority no longer wants this in March, we will certainly not give our vote against their will,” said Watzke.
The organized fan scene celebrated the recent withdrawal of potential investor Blackstone as an interim success. The DFL’s sole negotiating partner is now the company CVC. Watzke emphasized: “CVC knows that there will be zero influence on us. Zero! There will be no new kick-off times or anything like that with us!” The company also “accepted all of our red lines” and “does not want to even begin to reform our football.”