The Rotten Underbelly of German Football

Lots of friends went to Germany for the World Cup and had only good things to say about it. German football has the highest attendances in Europe, tickets are cheap, you can drink beer, the Bundesliga is thriving despite the average performances of their teams in Europe.

However, scratch below the surface, and you'll uncover society's real problems and prejudices coming to light. Hot on the heels of the anti-semitic shame game in Berlin a few weeks back and Stuttgart Kickers-Hertha match getting abandoned due to the linesman being hit by a missile, at the weekend, there were at least 3 separate incidents of major violence at lower league German matches, including major riots not even a mile from where I live, at the 3rd division Hertha Amateurs- Dynamo Dresden match.

Endi, fellow TeBe Party Army member, was there and reported all sorts of 'fun', including chants of "Juden Berlin" [Jew-Berlin] and "Jude Jude Jude! B-F-C!" [calling their rivals Dynamo Berlin Jews] Recall that this is commonplace behavour in East Germany, in fact Dresden fans it seems have not learned their lesson from taunts aimed at them from Cottbus fns in December 2005. Nice videos are available on Endi's blog. Bear in mind that this wasn't just a case of 20 or 30 isolated fans chanting these songs, but the whole curve. Repeatedly.

East German football is rotten to the core, reflecting the malaise in society there which has led to the post-Nazi NPD getting representation in all East German State parliaments. More education needed.

For a report on a non-eventful, gay (in the homosexual sense), almost peaceful game of football in deepest East Germany, check out TeBe Party Army. Bye bye promotion.

Kick Racism Out Of German Football

A new week, a new scandal. Last week, it was fascist fans with naked anti-semitism. This week, it's German under-21 PLAYERS racially abusing black England players.

England in 'monkey' jibe fury

By STEVE BRENNER
October 12, 2006

ENGLAND stars claim Anton Ferdinand was called “a donkey and a monkey” by a German player.

The FA are waiting to hear from UEFA after issuing an official complaint following England Under-21s 2-0 win in Leverkusen on Tuesday.

Ferdinand and Micah Richards both complained of racial abuse from rival players.

An insider said: “The Germans were calling Anton a monkey and a donkey. It was bang out of order and Anton was upset.”

Anti-racism campaigners have called on football chiefs to take action.

Ironically, the man at the centre of the accusations, Aaron Hunt, has an English mother and could have played for England, but said he never seriously considered such an eventuality. Hunt himselfdenies the allegations publicly on the Werder Bremen website.

Erm, one would think that the 2 English players did not mishear another English native speaker aiming the words "donkey" and "monkey" at them, nor that said native speaker knew what he was saying and that they were not just any old "fierce verbal exchanges".

Oh, And Another Thing...

Well done to Hapoel Tel-Aviv and Maccabi Haifa for making it into the group stages of the UEFA Cup. Unfortunately, Hertha are too crap to get there to give us the chance of seeing an Israeli time in Berlin. Here's Hapoel's and Maccabi's groups:

Rangers	0	0
Partizan	0	0
Auxerre	0	0
M. Haifa	0	0
Livorno	0	0

Panathinaikos	0	0
PSG	0	0
Rapid Bucuresti	0	0
H. Tel-Aviv	0	0
Mladá Boleslav	0	0

Both have a realistic chance of progressing. Rangers are shit in Europe.

Anti-semitism, Germany, Football

Don't know why it's taken so long for someone to post this story...

Anyway the story first came to my attention via Doughnut Boy, who posted it on the Anti-Defamation Forum. A good English version courtesy of Ynetnews.com, German versions via Tagesspiegel, Berliner Zeitung, et al.

Berlin club protests about anti-Semitic abuse

Players of lower-league team Tus Makkabi walk off pitch after facing 'gas the Jews' and 'Auschwitz is back' chants

A Berlin lower-league club has complained to German soccer authorities about anti-Semitic chants that they faced at a recent match.

Players from Jewish club TuS Makkabi in the Berlin district league, five divisions below the Bundesliga, walked off the pitch in protest in the 78th minute of the match at VSG Altglienicke in east Berlin.

The statement from Makkabi can be found (in German) here.

Consider some of the chants the players were confronted with:

- "Synagogues must burn"

- "Führer , Führer , Führer, Führer"

- "Ausschwitz is back"

- "This isn't a Jew state, this isn't the German Jew Republic"

- "Gas the Jews"

- "JEWS, JEWS, JEWS"

- "The Federal Republic don't rule here, the NPD [neo-Nazi party] rule"

And for something totally nuts, while standing by the touchline, near the referee, and being abused by fans, a Makkabi player turned to the ref and said "Did you hear that?" The ref looked at him and said "No". Later, Makkabi player Vernen Liebermann, just before the game was abandoned, said to referee Brüning "If you have an ounce of decency for history in this country, then you must help us now". As a response, Brüning sent him off.

When you consider that TuS Makkabi is the only recognisable Jewish club, certainly in Berlin, and that the authorities did nothing or deliberately chose to turn a blind eye, this is scary, especially as it was a German 5th division away match in a pretty nasty part of Berlin. Those players really could have got badly hurt, no-one helped them at all, and they were forced to walk off themselves to make an issue of it.


Just for your information: more about Jews in German football on the FARE website. The FARE action week is taking place in Berlin soon. This, hopefully, with the help of TeBe fans and others, (we are in the process of organising a friendly match of TeBe fans against a Makkabi side) will be at the top of the agenda.