Defamatory banner
Mayor Reker files a complaint against Cologne fans
May 12, 2024, 4:59 p.m
The dissatisfaction of some Cologne fans with the city’s decisions escalated in an action at the weekend. The Südkurve defames Mayor Reker with an unworthy banner. The politician doesn’t accept this.
Cologne’s mayor Henriette Reker has filed a complaint of sexual insult because of a banner that fans of 1. FC Köln showed during the Bundesliga game against Union Berlin. This was confirmed by a city spokeswoman. The banner was aimed directly at the mayor with drastic words.
As the Cologne “Express” reports, Cologne’s managing director Christian Keller apologized to Reker immediately after the game: “Basically, any form of discrimination has no place at 1. FC Köln. That is incompatible with the values of FC. Even if it is “If it’s a fight for a noble goal, you have to remain decent and choose the right means of protest. That wasn’t the case here.” And further: “I would like to apologize to Henriette Reker for this banner on behalf of everyone responsible at FC.”
Fans, who according to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” are likely to be part of the ultra camp, hung the banner in front of Cologne’s south curve during the game. The background is the dispute that has been going on for years over the expansion of the club’s training area at Geißbockheim. 1. FC Cologne is planning to build a new youth training center as well as three additional football pitches and four small playing fields for the public behind the Geißbockheim in a previously undeveloped green belt.
After a citizens’ initiative filed a lawsuit against it, the city offered the club to move to Marsdorf in the west of Cologne instead. The club rejects this. The fans had also repeatedly spoken out against the move in recent weeks. Reker once campaigned for the expansion of the Geißbockheim, reported the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. But then she changed her mind in 2019 and followed the arguments of environmentalists and the Greens. FC Cologne was surprised and disappointed by this.