Even before representatives of the DFB and the DFL want to sit down at a table, the sovereignty of interpretation of the meeting is at stake. This time, the protests against Schalke only went against the DFB and not against Dietmar Hopp.
Frankfurt / Main (dpa) - Further protests in the stadium and new power struggles between the DFB and the ultra-scene behind the scenes: Before a planned crisis meeting, major fan associations are deceived by the German Football Association.
"We don't let ourselves be sold for stupid," said a statement released the previous evening by the organizations "Our Curve" and "Queer Football Fanclubs" in response to the announcement by the DFB to call a round table. The fans accuse the association of having broken agreements on the confidentiality of the meeting date and not, as claimed, of being the initiator of the meeting.
In the highly anticipated DFB Cup game FC Schalke 04 against Bayern Munich, there were no new posters against Hoffenheim's patron Dietmar Hopp, which has become a symbol for some fans in the fight against the collective penalty. Protests and insults against the DFB did not fail to materialize in Gelsenkirchen either. "Dementer Fußball-Bund - forgotten promise against collective penalty - are you now trying to blackmail us fans with abandoned games?" It said on a banner. And on another: "If we now show a son of a bitch son - will you stop playing - and we'll make it to a penalty shootout ?!"
There was no interruption of the game this time after the turbulent weekend before. A strategy had been defined at a meeting of the clubs with DFB representatives and referee Tobias Stieler before the game. It wasn't about "looking at when we can fire the first, second, third stages. But also not to say we ignore everything," said S04 media director Thomas Spiegel. It was all about "de-escalation and a sense of proportion. The goal was to say: how can we play a soccer game and get back to normal?"
On the last Bundesliga matchday, Schmäh attacks by Bayern fans against Hopp almost led to the termination of the game at TSG Hoffenheim. The day before, the DFB announced that there would be a round table of the AG Fan Cultures later this week, in which representatives of the DFB and the German Football League as well as various fan organizations sit.
An important one is the "Our Curve" alliance. It said that the initiative came from the fan organizations - not from the football associations. "We asked for dialogue to explore whether and how the situation could be de-escalated," wrote the authors. The meeting does not serve to pacify the protests. The DFB already has sovereignty of interpretation before the meeting. "About the dialogue and about the content. That is not a good basis for de-escalation," it said.
Previously, national coach Joachim Löw and DFB vice president Rainer Koch had spoken sharply in the conflict. Against the insults of Hopp "one has to act with all force", Löw demanded on the edge of the draw for the Nations League in Amsterdam.
Koch does not want to do without collective punishment for fan offenses in the future and said: "A red line has been crossed, and if all other means are not sufficient, we cannot come up with other solutions, in the final analysis you have to be prepared to be clear under such conditions we cannot play football, and then such a block has to be completely cleared. "
The latest escalation in the DFB's dispute with the fans had sparked from the collective penalties. The association suspended this form of sanction in 2017. Recently, however, the DFB sports court sentenced supporters of Borussia Dortmund to a stadium ban for two years in Hoffenheim, among other things, for a poster with Hopp in the crosshairs - the collective penalty was applied with the revocation of the suspended sentence.
Communication from "Our curve"
Hopp reaction
Legal and procedural rules of the DFB
Police report to the investigation team
Questions and answers on dfb.de.
AG Fan Cultures
Queer football fan clubs
