Fortuna dusseldorf’s club boss thomas rottgermann has called for a consistent reappraisal in german professional soccer following various incidents deemed racist or discriminatory.
"We are dealing with an enormous heterogeneity in fubball. We are talking in these cases about a chairman of the supervisory board, a player and a club radio station. You can’t compare these cases in detail," rottgermann told the deutsche presse-agentur: "but what they have in common is that I think there is a lack of consistency in reappraisal. I believe that too much is being allowed and too little is being said consistently: stop, here is a line that has been crossed. It can’t go on like this."
Norbert dickel and patrick owomoyela had made verbal derailments on BVB TV and borussia dortmund netradio. At the "day of the craftsman," schalker supervisory board member clemens tonnies said that in the fight against climate change, it would be better to finance 20 power plants a year in africa than to raise taxes. "Then the africans stopped cutting down trees, and they stopped producing children when it was dark."Tonnies suspends his duties for three months following a decision by the schalker honorary council. Third-division chemnitz FC accused captain daniel frahn of being close to the radical right-wing scene and parted company with the goal-scorer.
Rottgermann stressed that this was not a problem of fubball. "It is the people acting at all levels who are confronted with this complex and complicated heterogeneity. In many cases, people avoid confrontation in order to avoid facing criticism or emotional resistance. You should name things clearly and draw the necessary consequences," said the 58-year-old.
There must be an awareness of the problem that such remarks are unacceptable. "These red lines must not be crossed". There is nothing that can be a reason to make racist remarks. Nothing at all," said rottgermann.
In the tonnies case, he takes a clear position. "When it comes to racism and discrimination, there are no buffers for me. When someone says something like that, it’s a sign of contempt for other groups," said the CEO. He himself had drawn consequences. "I am not clemens tonnies. For me, however, I can say: I would have resigned."