The DFB announced on its website on Friday afternoon (June 5, 2020) that the control committee and the sports court will discontinue all pending proceedings from 2020 which are directed against clubs from the Bundesliga, the 2nd Bundesliga and the 3rd league and have not yet been finalized. “This includes all club proceedings, for example due to burning pyrotechnics in the stadium, rioting or banned banners”, it said in the message.
Conversely, this means that all proceedings in connection with the much-discussed insults against Dietmar Hopp are no longer applicable at the beginning of the year. The DFB replied to a specific request from the sports show: “If the games you mentioned were all in that calendar year, the corresponding procedures were discontinued.”
Clubs requested termination of proceedings
According to a report by the German Press Agency in mid-May, 1. FC Köln had already applied to the sports court to end its proceedings. According to dpa, this approach was followed by other clubs. In the corona crisis, all open proceedings were suspended anyway.
“With this measure, the DFB wants to make a contribution to not further burdening the strained financial situation of the clubs”, Hans E. Lorenz, the chairman of the DFB sports court, was cited to justify the measure. Dr. Anton Nachreiner, the chairman of the control committee, said with regard to the economic consequences of possible penalties: “Special situations justify special measures.”
Investigations ran against several clubs
Before the corona crisis, Dietmar Hopp was the all-important topic in German football. Several fan groups had displayed banners on which the majority owner of Bundesliga club TSG Hoffenheim was insulted. In addition, his face was shown in a crosshair, which many observers interpreted as a threat of violence.
The background: After the DFB sports court had imposed a suspended sentence on the Dortmund fans for insulting Hopp again and excluded them from away games at TSG for two seasons, other fan groups showed solidarity with the Dortmund team.
Fans of Bayern Munich showed an offensive poster against Hopp when their team played their away game against Hoffenheim, fans of Borussia Mönchengladbach, Union Berlin or 1. FC Köln also showed similar banners. In this connection, the DFB control committee opened an investigation against several clubs and might have brought charges before the sports court – this is now void.
The three-stage plan caused discussions
At that time, several games were about to be canceled. The DFB had rigorously acted against the posters by its referees – with the three-step plan:
- Step 1: Game interruption and stadium announcement
- Level 2: Teams go into the cabin and make another stadium announcement
- Level 3: Abort game
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The three-step plan has existed at FIFA and UEFA for years. The DFB also took him in several years ago, but never used it before the insults against Hopp. Numerous fan groups criticized the fact that the DFB acted so protectively at Hopp, whereas it had never previously applied the three-stage plan to racist, homophobic or sexist incidents in the stadiums.
In addition, fan representatives stated that the criticism of Hopp as a provocation is primarily directed against the DFB. They reject collective punishments such as block bans as a form of inadmissible clan detention; they accused the DFB of breaking the word against the Dortmund fans because of the implementation of the suspended sentence. Because he had promised to waive collective punishment.
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