A Problem On The Right-Wing
Posted by Pete in Bundesliga, World Cup | 13 April 2006
With just over two months to go, one problem for the World Cup host just doesn't seem to want to go away. The recent Regionalliga game between St. Pauli and Chemnitz was just another illustration of the problem of racism that still exists in German football.
Admittedly, the German game doesn't suffer as much as La Liga or Serie A (and B and C). Erster Bundesliga games very rarely attract much trouble, possibly (and I'm sticking my neck out here) because it is the ex-GDR clubs that frequently attract these sorts of "supporters" and these teams are languishing in the second division or lower. The St. Pauli-Chemnitz game was a perfect example. Around 200 Chemnitz supporters tried to provoke the traditionally left-wing St. Pauli fans with charming lyrics such as "We're building an underground, from St. Pauli to Auschwitz". It was a similar story at the recent Oberliga derby between TeBe Berlin and BFC Dynamo.
Unfortunately, groups of right-wing thugs from all over the country, as well as from further afield such as Poland are looking forward to using the World Cup as a soapbox to express their idiotic views. Some are apparently also planning to demonstrate in favour of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to show their support for his frequent Holocaust denials (illegal in Germany) should he visit the host country during the tournament.
Added to this are the recent lawsuits started by the Werder Bremen midfielder and German international, Patrick Owomoyela, as well as the DFB against the far-right NPD party after they published a World Cup calender that featured a distinct lack of black German players (Gerald Asamoah was also a notable absentee). Naturally, the calender was adorned with "White. Not just the national shirt colour" and...well you get the picture.
All of this leaves a very sour taste in the mouth, but is made worse by the fact that the tournament is approaching fast and the German game is seemingly unable to do anything about this variety of unsavoury attacks. Neverthless, unless it has escaped me, there haven't been any signs of a pro-active campaign to combat right-wing troublemakers in the game. With the world's eyes soon to be fixed on the country, you get the impression that the organisers are sitting tight with fingers crossed, hoping that everything will run relatively incident-free. For the sake of the German game, you have to hope that they are right.
