Eberl does not report: Cologne gets off lightly after hate posters

Eberl does not report
Cologne gets off lightly after hate posters

After the hate posters against RB sports director Max Eberl, 1. FC Köln is unlikely to have an aftermath. The incident was noted in the match report, but no investigation has been initiated. It’s up to the victim himself.

Breathe a sigh of relief at 1. FC Köln: The pure hatred that RB sporting director Max Eberl met with insulting posters from Cologne supporters on Saturday will probably have no consequences for FC. Referee Martin Petersen noted the incident in the match report and thus put it on the DFB’s agenda – but he will not initiate an investigation. Because according to SID information, Eberl has refrained from reporting.

“According to the legal and procedural rules of the DFB, proceedings due to unsportsmanlike behavior by spectators due to the showing of banners (…) are only initiated if the person affected by the announcement has submitted a written application to the DFB to open sports court proceedings.” , said the German Football Association on SID request. However, Eberl did not do this at the request of the DFB control committee.

But should Petersen have intervened during the Bundesliga game between 1. FC Köln and RB Leipzig (0-0)? “We noticed that posters were being shown, but we couldn’t read what was written there from the field,” said Petersen of “Bild” after Cologne fans showed several insulting banners against Eberl, including his exhaustion illness had mocked.

If Petersen had read the texts, he said he “would have thought about measures and probably initiated them.” However, it is disputed whether the three-stage plan of the DFB, which provides for measures ranging from a stadium announcement to the abandonment of the game, applies in this case. At least Eberl, who is not very popular in Cologne because of his past with arch-rival Gladbach, was stunned by the posters. “I would be interested to know if these people know exactly what burnout means. Burnout means that people exhaust themselves until they can no longer and beyond this point,” said the 49-year-old.

Abusive posters “unwearable”

Eberl had resigned from his position as Managing Director Sport at Borussia Mönchengladbach in January 2022 due to emotional overload and, after a break and a phase of self-discovery, had joined RB in December 2022, which was viewed critically by many. But since his return to professional football he has “never experienced” as much hatred and dislike as on Saturday in Cologne.

FC subsequently apologized, managing director Christian Keller (43) made it clear that the posters had not been brought into the stadium without approval: “If individual people are discriminated against, these are not the values ​​​​of 1. FC Köln.” Eberl’s defamation also caused a stir among Bundesliga rivals, with BVB sports director Sebastian Kehl describing the posters on Bild-TV as “unwearable”.

A similar case occurred in September when Borussia Mönchengladbach fans showed abusive posters against Eberl in the game against Leipzig. At that time, the stadium announcer warned the fans to put down a poster, otherwise referee Patrick Ittrich would interrupt the game. The three-step plan states that criticism in the form of banners or chanting can be “very direct, impolite, unobjective or distasteful” without disrupting play. This is only possible with “personified threats of violence”, such as a person in the crosshairs.

There was such a crosshair banner in Hanover in 2020, for example. At that time, the late Red Bull founder and RB shareholder Dietrich Mateschitz was the target of the 96 supporters, even the police were investigating. Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp was also denigrated in the same way. Gladbach was fined after the incident in September. The FC is now probably off lightly.

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