Why Bundesliga fans are protesting at German football games | OneFootball

In the Bundesliga of late, there have been multiple instances of fan protests. This is because supporters are unhappy about investor plans.

During Borussia Dortmund's match against Freiburg, we saw over 10 minutes of stoppage time added in the first half of a match at the Signal Iduna Park. It would ultimately end 3-0 for the home team with Donyell Malen netting a brace before Niclas Fullkrug put the cherry on top with a late third. Regardless of the result, however, both sets of fans were united as they threw tennis balls and coins onto the pitch in protest – as you can see in the footage below.

It goes beyond just the one event in German football, though. Elsewhere, Hamburg fans made their anger known as they attached bike locks to a goal in their game against Hannover. This caused a 30-minute delay during the second-division home match, which finished 4-3 to the visitors.

Due to all the drama on the pitch – most notably the protests – the game finished more than two hours and 40 minutes after it had kicked off. At one point, after banners were unfurled, the referee took both sets of players off the pitch, and fans were warned that the game could be abandoned.

And Hamburg have not let up in their protests, once again causing chaos in their match against Hansa Rostock on Saturday. Less than 10 minutes into the match, remote-controlled cars were sent onto the pitch with flares attached, causing the match to come to a halt.

Why there have been protests at Bundesliga matches

Plans made to sell marketing revenues to a private investor

As per The Guardian, protests have become a regular site at professional football matches in Germany ever since last year. They came after plans were made in December to sell a stake in marketing revenues to a private equity investor for an up-front payment.

The deal looks close to being finalised and so supporters are ramping up their efforts to make their feelings known. But it's nothing new, with fan clubs and "ultras" from several of Germany's top teams uniting in protest late in 2023 to remain silent for the first 12 minutes of their club's games.

As per Goal, the fear is that the league would be pressured by an investor to 'alter the competition's structure and prioritise TV viewers above the supporters present in the stadiums'.

At the recent Hamburg game against Hannover, there were banners directly aimed at CVC and Blackstone, the two prospective buyers in the league’s investment deal. As well as that, the away team displayed a banner showing the face of the club president Martin Kind in the crosshairs.

The 79-year-old businessman refused to say how he voted on the proposal, despite being asked by the Hannover members’ club to vote against it. The proposal only just passed with approval from 24 of the 36 clubs in the top two men’s divisions, the exact two-thirds majority needed.

Union Berlin against the plans

One of the more notable Bundesliga teams to publicly oppose the plans are Union Berlin. Club president Dirk Zingler explained that Germany, where most clubs are controlled by their members, risked losing its distinctiveness in a futile attempt to compete financially with wealthy club owners in other countries. As quoted in Associated Press News, he said: