This is really "the wrong final metaphor," said Christian Keller, before he finished his remarks and fled from the downpour to nearby Geißbockheim. The reporters were left standing in the rain and many questions about a legal case that could seriously endanger 1. FC Köln in its sporting existence and in its competitiveness as a first division club.When heaven was still merciful, sports director Keller commented on the drastic decision of a Fifa judiciary, which FC had received the day...
The World Football Association has imposed a transfer ban on 1. FC Köln. As FIFA confirmed on Wednesday evening, the Bundesliga club will not be allowed to sign any players in the next two transfer periods of the 2023/24 season. The background to the harsh penalty is the circumstances surrounding the signing of U19 striker Jaka Cuber Potocnik.The Cologne team signed the 17-year-old in January 2022, triggering a dispute with his former club Olimpija Ljubljana. Although it was not a...
Seven relevant absences: four players injured, two sick, one suspended. This constellation of shortages had reminded coach Edin Terzic shortly before kick-off in the Sky conversation, painfully and a bit threateningly of last fall, of that "vicious circle", as he called it in retrospect, when Borussia Dortmund was in a crisis with a small squad had slipped and had temporarily lost contact with the top of the Bundesliga.On Saturday evening, the opening of a vicious circle threatened again. Without the...
For a few years, the Cologne fans' choreographies were more exciting and unpredictable than the FC players' football. This has only changed fundamentally under the leadership of coach Steffen Baumgart since the summer of 2022. On Saturday, however, it was clear to everyone that things would be different one way or another, because for the 75th birthday of this self-proclaimed jerk club, the club and the spectators presented a gigantic choreography that encompassed all the stands. You've rarely seen anything...
The image of the crying clown is frowned upon in art for good reason: too kitschy. And yet after Stuttgart's 3-0 win against 1. FC Köln, which was rather too low, one felt reminded of the same motif from the empire of cheap prints. Hundreds of Cologne fans, of whom an estimated 99 percent defensively traveled to Swabia in carnival costumes, looked deeply sad out of brightly colored glasses on their way home. Apparently they, too, had expected a little...
Borussia Mönchengladbach - Bayern Munich 3: 2 (1: 1), Goals: 1:0 Stindl (13th), 1-1 Choupo-Moting (35'), 2-1 Hofmann (55'), 3-1 Thuram (84'), 3-2 Tel (90'+3')Red card: Dayot Upamecano (Munich) after an emergency brake (8th)Having to face Borussia Mönchengladbach four days after a major contract in Paris was no easy task for Bayern anyway. The Gladbachers had recently lined up in the gray nothingness of the table - but the most recent duels against Munich still resonated on Saturday: Bayern had...
The big carnival days are approaching, recognizable by the large number of disguised revelers who visited the packed Müngersdorfer Stadium on Sunday evening at the game between 1. FC Köln and Eintracht Frankfurt. Steffen Baumgart appeared in civilian clothes, but with knickers, a polo shirt and a peaked cap, he still looked like he was wearing the costume of a summer walker on the Ahr red wine trail.As usual, the coach found no opportunity to freeze in a breezy eight...
What, just three minutes? Thomas Reis and his assistant Marcus Gellhaus couldn't believe it when the fourth referee brought out the stoppage time board. Gestures of horror and incomprehension followed. Three minutes was far too little for the Schalke head coach and his assistant, who demanded more leeway to score that one goal that their team had been trying to score with zeal and even more zeal during the second half. But would Schalke have scored another goal if the...
from Sebastian FisherUntil a few days ago, most of Hasan Salihamidzic's performances this winter were pretty cheerful. FC Bayern's sports director had reacted to two serious injuries in the squad and twice signed a replacement, defender Daley Blind and goalkeeper Yann Sommer, and twice he smiled at the cameras for presentations. The goals achieved in the second half of the season, a large part of his job done for the time being, everything in order, that's how it seemed. The...
from Sebastian FisherUntil a few days ago, most of Hasan Salihamidzic's performances this winter were pretty cheerful. FC Bayern's sports director reacted to two serious injuries in the squad and signed two replacements, defender Daley Blind and goalkeeper Yann Sommer, and twice he smiled at the cameras for presentations. The goals achieved in the second half of the season, a large part of his job done for the time being, everything in order, that's how it seemed. The transfer activities...
