2. Bundesliga fan protests are getting out of hand
Bicycle locks on the goal posts, crosshair posters – 96 fans cause a scandal
Status: 09.02.2024 | Reading time: 2 minutes
The fan protests have reached a new level of escalation. Hannover 96 supporters hold up posters with 96 boss Martin Kind in the crosshairs during the away game at HSV. Hanover’s victory becomes a minor matter.
It took a long time for the stewards to find a solution. Finally, they arrived with angle grinders and ensured that Hamburger SV’s game against Hannover 96 could continue. During halftime of the game, HSV fans attached six chain locks to the goal posts, probably in protest against the investor plans of the German Football League (DFL).
After the locks were finally removed, referee Sören Storks wanted to restart the game with the score at 3-1 for Hannover. But fans kept throwing objects onto the lawn, so the referee had to wait. Finally he released the game ten minutes late.
Stewards remove the locks from the goal post
Quelle: Getty Images/Stuart Franklin
What followed was a further escalation in the protest against the investor plans. After Hamburg’s Dennis Hadzikadunic made it 2-3, Hannover fans in the away block held up three disgusting and inhumane banners. They each showed the portrait of 96 boss Martin Kind in the crosshairs.
Game is about to be canceled
After neither 96 captain Ron Robert Zieler, coach Stefan Leitl and the entire Hanover team achieved anything with the fans, referee Storks did the only right thing: he sent the players to the dressing rooms. The 96 fans then removed the bad banners. The referee announced via the stadium announcer that he would cancel the game if further actions followed.
The disgusting and inhumane poster of the Hanover fans
Quelle: Getty Images/Stuart Franklin
Next to the posters with the crosshairs were banners with the inscriptions: “CVC & Blackstone puppets of Saudi Arabia’s sportswashing”, “Consistent action in the face of personified threats of violence” and “Play interruption now”.
“Crosshair posters are an absurdity, that’s not possible, we don’t have to talk about it. We don’t have to talk about that. We are happy about the victory. But what happened during the game is of course not nice. The protests and actions are of course becoming more intense. Things cannot and must not continue like this. The rest of the stadium and the players suffer from it,” said Hanover’s sports director Markus Mann.
The teams only returned to the pitch after a break of over half an hour. HSV equalized to 3:3, but immediately conceded the 3:4 to Hannover’s Sebastian Ernst. It was the winning goal for the guests in a game in which the result became irrelevant.