Frankfurt Fans Continue Bundesliga Protests Against Outside Investors, Game Briefly Interrupted

FRANKFURT, Germany: Eintracht Frankfurt’s Bundesliga sport in opposition to Wolfsburg was briefly interrupted Sunday as residence followers continued protests in opposition to outdoors buyers by focusing on the visiting membership.

The second half had began simply minutes earlier than Frankfurt supporters threw small plastic balls onto the sector behind one of many objectives. At least one small plastic pig was additionally thrown, touchdown beside one of many aim posts.

The followers additionally held an enormous banner criticizing Volkswagen-backed Wolfsburg with an expletive, saying the “investor club” needs to be excluded from the German soccer federation (DFB).

The sport was held up for round six minutes whereas the gadgets had been eliminated earlier than play resumed with Wolfsburg main 2-1.

Omar Marmoush scored in stoppage time to salvage a 2-2 draw for Frankfurt.

The residence crew’s supporters had been objecting to Wolfsburg’s standing in distinction to their very own, the place followers have a majority say in how the membership is run.

The multi-sport membership VfL Wolfsburg was based in 1945, solely seven years after town of Wolfsburg was itself based for Volkswagen manufacturing facility employees.

Wolfsburg remains to be backed by the German auto producer, considered one of solely two exceptions to the German soccer league’s 50-plus-1 rule that limits how a lot of a membership an outdoor investor can management. The rule states that members of a membership must retain management of voting rights – at the very least 50% and one vote.

Bayer Leverkusen is the opposite exception, because it was based for Bayer manufacturing facility employees. The pharmaceutical large nonetheless owns the membership. Both Wolfsburg and Leverkusen are granted exemptions from 50-plus-1 as a result of they’ve had the identical backers for greater than 20 years.

Hoffenheim was one other exception, however backer Dietmar Hopp transferred most of his voting rights again to the membership final yr to carry it consistent with the rule.

Leipzig, which was based by Red Bull in 2009, handled the 50-plus-1 rule by limiting membership to a choose few members related to the power drinks producer.

The rule was strengthened final yr when it was cleared by the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office), however it stays a sticking level for supporters and membership officers whose pursuits usually expose.

American funding group 777 Partners took over Hertha Berlin as its majority shareholder final yr, however membership members nonetheless retain nearly all of voting rights.

The Frankfurt followers’ protest on Sunday got here regardless of the German soccer league (DFL) on Wednesday scrapping its controversial plan to usher in an outdoor investor for a share of media rights revenue.

The final two weekends had seen in depth protests throughout Germany’s high two divisions due to that plan, and no additional protests had been anticipated after the DFL deserted the concept.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)