Berlin does not want to comment
Bayern ultras mock Union boss with huge banner
January 25, 2024, 10:28 a.m
FC Bayern’s ultras put up a insulting poster at the game against Union Berlin. At the center of their criticism: the President of the Eisernen and his statements about the entry of an investor into the DFL. The Iron Men do not want to comment on the incident.
President Dirk Zingler and 1. FC Union Berlin do not want to comment on the insulting poster from FC Bayern Munich fans. “We’re not doing anything about that,” said communications director and press spokesman Christian Arbeit. The evening before, Bayern ultras had hung up a huge banner at the Eisernen’s catch-up game in Munich, on which Zingler had been insulted. “It’s better to be a winner than to criticize the Stasi pig who is courting investors…” was written in two lines in red letters on the white poster. Zingler was also pictured in a Stasi uniform and with a pig’s nose.
The background is Zingler’s past and his attitude to the question of an investor joining the DFL. During the GDR era, the 59-year-old served for three years in a guard regiment that was subordinate to the state security. Zingler had explained at an earlier point in time that he had not previously known that the guard regiment was under the Stasi’s control, but had only noticed it when he began his duties. “I then stood guard in front of a hospital. I had nothing to do with the Stasi itself,” he said at the time.
He has been president of 1. FC Union since 2004 and only confirmed in December that he was generally open to investors in German football if the type of deal was right. “We as a Union are not fundamentally against investors in football for ideological reasons, because we ourselves are a club that has been investing in all of its areas with outside capital for 20 years. 1. FC Union Berlin is a story of courageous investors,” Zingler said in a club interview with the Bundesliga club.
However, when the DFL voted, Union voted against it “because we don’t think it’s good for the league. Because we believe that we are making a decision for a period of 20 years that we cannot yet foresee,” said Zingler explained. He is against investors “who actually change our football”. Nevertheless, the DFL received the mandate from the required majority of the 36 professional clubs; 24 voted in favor. The new partner is to pay one billion euros for a percentage share of the TV revenue. The contract should have a maximum term of 20 years and be signed by the start of the 2024/25 season. Fans have been protesting against the investor deal in the stadiums for weeks.