More cases of racist chanting in German football

The German Football Federation (DFB) Monday launched an investigation into racist chants at a Bundesliga match in the second incident of fan abuse of players within a week.The DFB control committee is to look into a report compiled by referee Michael Weiner into the match on Saturday between Alemannia Aachen and Borussia Moenchengladbach. Weiner threatened to take players off the pitch if Aachen fans continued to chant “asylum seeker” at Moenchengladbach’s Brazilian striker Kahe. It has since emerged that Aachen’s Zambian defender Moses Sichone was also the subject of abuse from a section of fans. Weiner has submitted a special report into the incidents, and the DFB has now called for statements from both clubs. On Friday, the DFB’s sports court fined second-division Hansa Rostock 20,000 euros (about 25,000 dollars) following abuse of German striker Gerald Asamoah during a cup match last week. Asamoah, who left Ghana for Germany as a boy, was taunted while playing for Schalke 04 at Hansa Rostock’s amateur reserve side.Home fans made monkey noises when the player – a member of Germany’s World Cup squad – was near the ball. DFB president Theo Zwanziger has warned clubs they bear the responsibility for the behaviour of their fans. Incidents of racism at grounds could lead to point deductions, he said. However, the incident at Rostock will not endanger Germany’s friendly international against Georgia in the northeastern city on October 7, Zwanziger said.Asked whether consideration had been made to call off the match, Zwanziger told the daily Leipziger Volkszeitung: “Quite honestly, I thought about it for two seconds. But then you have to consider: who would be affected by this decision? “We would have hit many people who have nothing to do with right-wing radicalism.” However Zwanziger said he expected “far stronger measures” by the clubs against any incidents of racism at football grounds. In an interview with the Tagesspiegel daily on Sunday, Zwanziger said clubs had to take their share of the blame for incidents of racism and could be punished severely by the DFB. “The clubs are also implicated. They can no longer talk their way out of it by saying radical-right and racist incidents are the work of a few troublemakers.”They bear the responsibility and have to live with the consequences – up to the loss of points.”At the match in Aachen Saturday, referee Weiner instructed the stadium announcer to warn spectators he would take both teams off if he heard any further abuse of Kahe. The match continued and Aachen won 4-2. German referees head Volker Roth praised the referee’s action, saying: “The decision from Mr. Weiner was completely right. Racism doesn’t belong in a football stadium – that’s why the referees were told again not to tolerate such smears.” Roth said he believed Saturday’s racist chanting was a copycat incident triggered by what happened to Asamoah. Zwanziger meanwhile said the international match in Rostock would be another signal for football in the eastern region of Germany. “The east is football country, that was so before East Germany, during East Germany and afterwards. If you renounce this (football) country you damage football as a whole in Germany,” he said.Expatica News http://www.expatica.com/