Bochum (dpa) – VfL Bochum’s CEO Hans-Peter Villis reacted with sharp criticism to the cup throwing scandal in the game against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
The 64-year-old hopes that his own fans will help in the search for the person who caused the Bundesliga game to be abandoned. “We will definitely find the one. We don’t want anything to do with fans like that. There are a few fans here who don’t have their hands and their brains under control. But they are individual,” said Villis of “Bild”: “That is not the behavior of VfL. They are the only idiots who drag the image of the club down.”
The game was stopped on Friday evening when the score was 2-0 for the guests from Mönchengladbach after assistant referee Christian Gittelmann was hit on the head by a drink cup.
Bochum’s boss speaks plain language
“A few people are destroying everything we’ve been building here for years. It’s tough, it’s horrible,” said Villis. “You have to look at the context: there’s a war in Ukraine, we’re making a special jersey, we’re doing everything we can to make our contribution to this terrible event. And there are people sitting and deliberately throwing a beer mug. How stupid can it be to be? There are 25,000 spectators here, creating a great atmosphere, but some people don’t get it. 1200 kilometers from us there is war…”.
Villis does not know how such throws are to be prevented in the future. “I have no idea how to solve the problem. Maybe you really have to fence them off, but that would be sad. And we don’t want that either,” he said. “We live from the fact that we have such a jewel box that we are very close to our players.”
Search for the cup launcher in progress
The pictures are currently being evaluated and VfL will actively support the police in their investigations, the Bochum team announced that night. The Bundesliga club reserves the right, among other things, “to make claims for damages. Because we assume that VfL will be punished by the association,” says the statement.
“In the event of a physical attack on a game official, in this case the assistant referee, there is simply no alternative to stopping the game,” said referee Benjamin Cortus at DAZN. The cup hit Gittelmann clearly in the head, said Cortus. “He was dazed, has been taken to the hospital and will be examined accordingly,” said the main referee. Florian Heft, Cortus’ second assistant, accompanied Gittelmann to the hospital.
Angry Bochum players
The litter also caused incomprehension and anger among the players. “It’s very sad that something like this is called a VfL Bochum fan!” Manuel Riemann wrote on Instagram. The Bochum keeper ran out of his goal after the break in play and yelled at the fans in the section of the stands from which the cup flew.
Riemann’s currently injured teammate Simon Zoller also became apparent. “We, VfL Bochum, have been writing an incredible story for almost 2 years. This action is just disrespectful to all those who work their ass off every day to experience this journey! Let alone the linesman! YOU have nothing in the stadium lost!” the 30-year-old wrote on Twitter.
“Of course it can be assumed that the game will be scored against us,” said Bochum’s assistant coach Markus Gellhaus, who represented head coach Thomas Reis, who was infected with the corona virus, on the sidelines. This is actually to be assumed. A similar case happened in Hamburg in 2011. During the game between FC St. Pauli and FC Schalke 04, assistant referee Thorsten Schiffner was also hit by a cup. The game was stopped when Schalke was 2-0 and later scored 2-0 for Gelsenkirchen.