Despite the good start to the season and the much-acclaimed farewell game for Claudio Pizarro, Werder Bremen’s house blessing is crooked. Background: the dismissal of long-time stadium spokesman Christian Stoll, who has made serious allegations against the club.
Werder Bremen dropped the bomb on Wednesday afternoon: In a short message, the Bundesliga club announced the separation of stadium announcer Christian “Stolli” Stoll “with immediate effect”.
For 21 years, Stoll had previously played the role of heater in the Weser Stadium together with Arnd Zeigler, also known from TV.
After several discussions in the last few weeks, the decision was made, the statement said. Zeigler will initially lead the program alone at Bremen’s home games. Stoll was no longer at the microphone for Claudio Pizarro’s farewell game on Saturday.
Misconduct after “highly dramatic final phase”
The 62-year-old, who also acted as stadium spokesman for the German national team between 2006 and 2016, spoke up a little later with a written statement from which several media quoted.
Stoll admitted misconduct following the narrow 1-0 draw against FC Augsburg on the 6th matchday. After the end of the “highly dramatic final phase” he allowed himself to be carried away by comments to referee Martin Petersen and FCA manager Stefan Reuter.
“I told the referee that he’d rather whistle the district league, the member of the management of the Augsburger that he had a group of unsympathetic people at the start,” admitted Stoll, who emphasized: “Of course I’ve apologized to both gentlemen in the meantime.”
Serious allegations against Werder Bremen
Werder nevertheless informed him that his behavior did not match the club’s values. The club rejected an amicable separation at the end of the year and his wish to accompany the upcoming home game against Gladbach.
“Even the urgent request to at least stop by saying goodbye to Claudio Pizarro was rejected,” said Stoll.
He “also apologized to those responsible for the club and honestly regretted my wrong behavior. I didn’t seek any excuses and confessed to my mistake. That’s all I could do. Nevertheless, I was chased from the farm from one moment to the next.”
Stoll suspected that critical comments in his role as a columnist for the Bremen media were the real reason for the green-white party’s end. The expulsion offended him “in my pride at being part of the Werder family and hurt my personal honor as a person” and it hurts “extremely”.