1. FC Köln face consequences

The hate posters against RB Leipzig’s sports director Max Eberl during the away game against 1. FC Köln (0-0) will probably have consequences. Referee Martin Petersen told the picture that he had noted the events in the match report. During the game he noticed the banners but could not read the content.

“We noticed that posters were being shown, but we couldn’t read what was written on them from the field. The game was so intense that we had our focus completely on the referee,” said Petersen. Cologne fans had shown several insulting banners against Eberl and mocked his exhaustion illness, among other things.

If Petersen had read the texts, he said he “would have thought about measures and probably initiated them.” However, it is disputed whether the three-stage plan of the DFB, which provides for measures ranging from a stadium announcement to the abandonment of the game, applies in this case.

A similar case occurred in September when Borussia Mönchengladbach fans showed abusive posters against Eberl in the game against Leipzig. At that time, the stadium announcer warned the fans to put down a poster, otherwise referee Patrick Ittrich would interrupt the game.

However, this also led to contradiction, since the three-stage plan states that criticism in the form of banners or chants can be “very direct, impolite, unobjective or tasteless” without interrupting the game. This is only possible with “personified threats of violence”, such as a person in the crosshairs.

Max Eberl reacts shocked to hate posters

Sports attorney Christoph Schickhardt would have liked to intervene. “The fourth referee or a DFB observer in the stands must recognize such posters and react. No game may be continued under hate slogans. I am expressly not saying that as a lawyer for RB Leipzig, but as a lawyer,” said the 67- year olds the Picture.

Eberl had reacted stunned to the posters. “I would be interested to know if these people know exactly what burnout means. Burnout means that people spend themselves until they can no longer and beyond this point,” said the 49-year-old, who was also in Cologne because of his past with arch-rivals Gladbach is not very popular.