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Viktor Orbán at EURO 2021
Photo:
Robert Michael / dpa
1. FC Union Berlin does so many things right.
In terms of sport, things have continued to improve - with the current high point of the championship lead in the Bundesliga.
The squad planning is outstanding, the coach is no less, in the background there is a clever and far-sighted management, and all this is supported by a fan base whose loyalty is appropriately described with the word iron.
There is still nothing nicer than an afternoon of football in the old forester's lodge.
And never forget: Iron Union.
You have to love this club.
Actually.
But.
The picture has scratches.
And in the past week two more have been added.
Only on Thursday there were disturbing television recordings from the Union fan block at the Europa League game in Malmö, when firecrackers flew onto the pitch.
And since this Tuesday, a small state affair has been added.
The visit of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to the Hungarian Union professional Andras Schäfer on the club premises in Köpenick has already caused considerable image damage.
»Not officially received«
The visit was declared "private," Union communications chief Christian Arbeit then tried to smooth things over.
Union did not officially receive the Prime Minister.
The fact that Orbán himself then proudly posted pictures in which he sat at the table with Schäfer, work and Union managing director Michael Parensen weakens this version of the club.
A Bundesliga club may find it difficult to prevent the head of government of another country from visiting its own premises.
That would probably have led to diplomatic upheavals.
But the fact that a club like Union, which sees itself as value-oriented, tacitly and without comment allows a politician who tramples on all these values to march through the Alte Försterei remains an indictment.
Especially since Orbán definitely did not make this supposed private visit as a private individual.
But on the mission of self-portrayal as a strong politician.
And it's grist to the mill of those who accuse the club of political aberrations.
Union President Dirk Zingler has meandered back and forth between different positions during the pandemic, and in some statements he has come critically close to lateral thinkers' views.
In September, he complained in a major interview with the "Berliner Zeitung" that opponents of vaccination had been discriminated against by politicians.
Zingler has also been publicly upset about gender and vegan food, but that was probably “private” too.
Difficult to classify
Zingler's credo is that Union is a »humanistic« association.
Orbán stands for the suppression of press freedom, he stands for the suppression of queer life, he stands for the oppression of the opposition.
A humanistic association should take a stand against this.
Union didn't do that.
In the interview, the club boss also shook his head and criticized that "sport should be sabotage, boycotted, excluded" if politicians and parts of the public had their way.
He was referring to the World Cup in Qatar, which he defended against Western criticism, but that can also be applied to Orbán's visit.
Zingler and the club that he has headed since 2004 and that he has managed so successfully to this day: both stand for a politically nebulous attitude, diffuse, difficult to classify.
In the end, Union will remain the football club of the East, we can agree on that.
If it goes beyond that, it becomes confusing.
The rainbow would have helped
That is the club's right, no club is forced to position itself on everything.
At the same time, however, 1. FC Union also flirts with the image of the cool club with remnants of punk and working-class culture with a heart for the underdogs, for the weak.
Viktor Orbán has no heart for the weak.
There would probably have been a nice way of preventing the Prime Minister's visit to Köpenick.
One would have only had to flag the old forester's house with rainbow flags.
Orbán is known to have an allergic reaction to them, having canceled his visit to Munich last year after the debate about illuminating the arena in the colors of the rainbow.
But Zingler also commented on this in that meaningful interview with the »Berliner Zeitung«: »And then we should illuminate our stadium with a flag, it doesn’t matter which one, to show solidarity with something or someone.« For him it’s just » Symbolic Politics«.
During his visit to the German capital, Orbán also visited the Berliner Zeitung and answered polite questions from the publisher on a podium there.
He said: "In questions of national pride, the concept of the family and gender politics, a dividing line runs through Europe." It is clear which side of this border Orbán stands on.
Where 1. FC Union stands, he could make a bit clearer from time to time.