Right-wing friends?
Werder fans demand stadium ban for Tim Wiese
10/02/2022 1:57 p.m
Former goalkeeper Tim Wiese has trouble with the fans who once celebrated him. The supporters of Werder Bremen are calling for a banner to ban the ex-professional from the stadium. He is said to have contacts in the right-wing scene. The 40-year-old rejects this.
“Anyone who hangs out with Nazis has no place in the Weser Stadium.” That’s what it said on a banner that the fans of Bundesliga soccer team Werder Bremen showed during the 5-1 win against Borussia Mönchengladbach. So far, so clear. A statement that definitely applies universally. But an afterthought on the banner caused a lot of excitement. Under the clear demarcation to the right one could read: “No stage for Tim Wiese!”
The club’s former goalkeeper, well-liked by many and something of a cult figure, will be snubbed this Saturday. Those who once cheered him now banned him from the stadium. The protest was triggered by photos on social media showing Wiese with members of the Radikal Kameradschaft Bremen motorcycle club. The Twitter account “AfD Watch Bremen” explained that the group would “do things together” with the “Category C” singer Hannes Ostendorf. This belongs to the right-wing hooligan scene.
Wiese confirmed to the “Deichstube” that he knows the founder of the motorcycle club, Heiko Villages: “Heiko has been running a fitness studio in Lilienthal for 25 years. We met there years ago because I train intensively there. We are friends. Heiko is not right-wing radical, but a lot of people go to his studio – grandmas, grandpas, everyone.” At the same time, the 40-year-old denied being right-wing: “That’s absolute nonsense. I have nothing to do with the right-wing scene and I also position myself very clearly against the right-wing.” He explained: “Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m friends with many migrants. Some instrumentalizing wannabe fans have therefore already speculated that I’m cooperating with some clan. That’s all nonsense.”
Villages told the “Deichstube”: “Yes, I’m a patriot and love my country, but we’re not right-wing extremists. As a motorcycle club, we don’t hang out with Nazis, we just ride motorcycles.” However, he admitted to knowing singer Ostendorf and having helped him for a music video before. Because the police observed this, his motorcycle club has since been associated with the right-wing scene, Dorfen said. “But that’s just not true.”
Wiese emphasizes that he doesn’t want to let the fans stop him from getting further into the stadium. “Why should I stay at home?” The fans of the football club, on the other hand, not only demanded on their banner that Werder Bremen had to position themselves – just as the club does regularly, for example with campaigns like “Klare Kante gegen Rechts”. Wiese should receive an official stadium ban, some wrote on Twitter. According to “Deichstube”, the association wants to clarify the allegations internally and then comment.