Ultras have “declared war”
TSG fears “escalation” and possible game abandonment
Things are simmering at TSG Hoffenheim: ultra groups have declared “war” on the Bundesliga club after the club fired managing director Alexander Rosen. Now an unprecedented “escalation” is looming in Sinsheim, and there is even the possibility of a game being abandoned at the start of the season.
The Bundesliga football club TSG Hoffenheim, which has been plagued by crisis for weeks, is threatened with a draw at the start of the season on Saturday against newly promoted Holstein Kiel (3.30 p.m./Sky and in the live ticker on ntv.de) massive anger with some of their own fans. The club is so worried that they do not even want to rule out a provoked abandonment of the match: “We hope that the match will go ahead – but we do not know.”
According to TSG, two ultra groups have “declared war” on the club in response to the dismissal of sports director Alexander Rosen at the end of July and are refusing any dialogue. The situation escalated “after the dismissal” of Rosen, who is popular with the ultras, and “it could get ugly on Saturday against Kiel,” TSG said on Tuesday.
The club stressed that it did not want to “suppress any opinions” – but defamation of people such as the recent one against shareholder Dietmar Hopp and club boss Simone Engelhardt “would no longer be tolerated”: “We do not want Dietmar Hopp to be bullied out of his own stadium.”
“Could lead to escalation”
Against this background, TSG has asked supporters to clear the fan camp within the stadium grounds, where banners and flags are kept, in the run-up to the Kiel game – which, according to the club, “could also lead to an escalation”.
TSG says it is in contact with the German Football League (DFL) and the German Football Association (DFB). If there are any incidents that are relevant to criminal law (crosshairs, etc.), TSG is counting on the police to intervene.
Since the dismissal of Rosen and other managing directors, there has been great unrest around TSG. Billionaire Hopp, among others, has been asked by some of the fans to leave the club, which he had made into a Bundesliga club. The fan club Young Boyz 07 writes of the club's “greatest ordeal”.
