The final 13 minutes of the Hoffenheim-Bayern Munich match this past weekend were strange. During the game, a group of Bayern Munich ultras had displayed banners deemed abusive to Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp, including one that roughly translates to calling him a “son of a bitch/whore.”
The referee took the first two steps of the UEFA three step process put in place to combat disruptive fan behavior, although the process was mostly designed to combat racism, homophobia, and other abuses of that nature. A warning had been read out over the stadium public address, and the two teams had been taken off the pitch for fifteen minutes.
When the two teams came back out, they essentially finished the match with a protest of their own. They stood around the middle of the pitch and listlessly kicked the ball back and forth. I question what the players would have done had the match not been a 6-0 blowout — I suspect they would have played out a one-goal match — but that’s neither here nor there.
The Bayern Munich fan group released a statement (broken down here) explaining their reasoning. TL;DR — they were protesting a decision by the German Football Association (DFB) to ban Borussia Dortmund supports from attending Hoffenheim matches for two years, which they view as DFB breaking a promise (that was never made an official policy, mind you) not to collectively punish fanbases. They also were endeavoring to point out the absurdity and hypocrisy of equating the treatment of Hopp with fans racially abusing player and taking issue with what they see as a Draconian response to “mere insults” when compared to accusations and incidents of racism that have gone unpunished.
A little background on Dietmar Hopp and why he has become such a disliked and divisive figure. Hopp is one of the founders of SAP software company, the third largest IT group in the world. He’s a multi-billionaire and used some of his fortune to buy his boyhood club, TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. Under his ownership, the club went from the eighth tier of German football all the way to the Bundesliga in 2008. During the climb, he received an exception to the “50+1 rule” designed to prevent a single investor from holding a majority share in any club from the German Football Association (DFB). With the exception in hand, he has poured money into the club, leading critics to accuse him of buying a spot in the Bundesliga and becoming a poster-boy for “the commercialization of football.”
Borussia Dortmund supporters have been particularly outspoken about his ownership tactics and have displayed banners, including some with his likeness in the crosshairs of a rifle, since 2008. The conflict escalated in 2011 when Hoffenheim were found to be piping in artificial background noise in an attempt to drown out critical chants from Dortmund supporters. While Hopp was never officially linked to the artificial noise, naturally, Dortmund fans and Hopp’s other detractors think he was behind it.
Nobody, not the fans, not the players, nor the DFB come out of this mess looking great. Fans should try to stay away from personal attacks on anybody, especially insults not tied to the person’s professional activities, and putting someone’s face in the center of a crosshair is never okay. I recognize that the Bayern supporters made a deliberate choice and that’s their prerogative as protestors, but football fans have come up with some very creative chants over the years — perhaps they can again.
Similarly, the players were well within their right to counter-protest by knocking the ball about for the final 13 minutes of the match. You’d just like to see the same level of statement and commitment from players in the face of abuse, racial or otherwise, of their teammates. For the most part across Europe, we haven’t seen that. What we have seen is players trying to physically restrain their racially abused teammates to keep them on the pitch instead of walking off the field arm-in-arm with them.
The same criticism can be leveled at the DFB. Why have they chosen to draw the hard line at ownership being targeted? It’s a double-standard, and for now, they’re on the wrong side. If they come down hard on the next incidence of racism in German football, I’ll reevaluate. But I’d remind you that when Mesut Özil retired from the German National Team citing racism experienced at the hands of his fellow Germans as one the reasons for his decisions, he was basically called ungrateful, accused of making it up, and told to shut up and go away by the German footballing establishment.
It’s all an unfortunate commentary on who matters. Accusations of racism have been met with dithering and excuses, but the book gets thrown if you come at a billionaire owner? That’s not a good look. Do better, everyone.
The Lukewarm Take 