Monday, September 13, 2021
Long suspension and fine
DFB severely punishes racist statements
The Saarbrücken professional Dennis Erdmann is said to have racially insulted several Magdeburg opponents. He denies everything. The DFB sports court sees it differently. “For a plot against Dennis Erdmann” there are no indications. He is banned for eight weeks.
The DFB sports court has considered racist abuse of Dennis Erdmann from 1. FC Saarbrücken in the game of the 3rd soccer league against 1. FC Magdeburg as proven. The 30-year-old striker was punished for this with a total suspension of eight weeks. He has already played two games since the first day of negotiations two weeks ago. In addition, according to the judgment in Frankfurt am Main, he must pay a fine of 3000 euros.
A spokesman for his association announced that he would appeal. At the same time, Saarbrücken wants to have the ban lifted until a hearing before the DFB Federal Court. “The oral justification for the verdict contained considerable exonerating moments, which, however, did not flow into the decision-making process,” it said in a message. “The FCS was certified not to be a racist club and the statements of the players taking part in the process and the external witnesses were described as credible.”
“As a result of the taking of evidence, the sports court is convinced that the player made the following statements in the direction of the Magdeburg professional Amara Condé: He should paddle home with his parents,” said the deputy chairman of the sports court, Stephan Oberholz. Erdmann also insulted him at least once with the N-word.
Testimony very credible
In addition to Condé, his Magdeburg teammates Baris Atik, Sirlord Conteh and Leon Bell Bell confirmed the allegations against Erdmann on the first day of the trial. On the other hand, the Saarbrücken players Adriano Grimaldi, Alexander Groiß and Luca Kerber, who were summoned as witnesses on Thursday, as well as captain Manuel Zeitz, who was on the phone because of an illness, testified that they had not heard any racist remarks from Erdmann during the game on August 25th. According to Oberholz, these statements could not have cast doubt on the Magdeburg players, although Atik’s would have left great doubts. “He wasn’t the most believable under the sun,” said Oberholz. But that of the main witness Conté was very credible.
Erdmann rejected the allegations again on the second day of the trial. “It was not an easy week and a half. It is still not easy for me to go to bed in the evening,” he said and assured the sports court. “You saw that I’m not the kind of skin color differentiator.”
“Isn’t his world at all”
Shortly after the emergence of the racism allegations, 1. FC Saarbrücken decidedly rejected them as “unfounded” and emphasized that there was no place for racism in our ranks. “In view of this factual situation, the unilaterally raised and unproven allegations from Magdeburg players lack any reliable basis,” it said in a statement. Fred Kreitlow, as a representative of the DFB control committee, found the allegations against Erdmann “essentially correct” in his plea. Conté stated that the insults went far beyond the trash talk among players. “He heard the N-word from Erdmann several times,” said Kreitlow.
The accused player’s lawyer, Horst Klettke, saw what he believed to be imprecise statements made by the Saarbrücken players about the allegations as insufficient for such a severe punishment. “Dennis Erdmann got involved and definitely said he hadn’t made these statements,” said the lawyer. “He made it clear that this is not his world at all.” Since the allegations first made public via the media, the player and his family have received around “1500 worst insults and threats”, according to Klettke. He had demanded an acquittal and considers the conviction “to be unfounded”.
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