To be honest, I don’t think it’s good. You don’t just change your mind after “a few conversations”
I expected more backbone.
So you can maybe criticize how quickly it happened, okay, but we weren’t there at the discussions, and if he “credibly assured” that he regrets the post and the statement it contained, I think it’s okay, a warning to send him and bring him back on probation. The Mainz leadership isn’t deathly naive either; he won’t have convinced them with a loose “sorry”.
I don’t want to come up with the “everyone makes mistakes sometimes” number.
What I think, however, is that punishments should always be proportionate to the crime and the insight shown – as is the case in our legal system.
Yes, it is important to take a stand against the approval of terror, but not by simply condemning and banishing everyone who has ever done something like this for eternity.
Showing a repentant sinner a way back is not a “lack of spine” but a differentiated examination of the person and the offense.
And: It is clear that he is under observation. A second non-sporting offense of some kind and then he won’t be able to get a foot on the ground in Europe.
I don’t think the “everyone makes mistakes” argument is appropriate here.
The man casually wanted to deprive an entire country of its right to exist, knowing full well that an extremely large number of people would then at least be driven out, if not even killed. This isn’t a small mistake, it’s a deep, radical conviction and you can’t change it that easily.
The only thing that Mainz has been able to credibly assure is that the man will not make any further posts in this direction. Otherwise, like many other clubs, you have a player in your ranks who thinks it’s good if Israel is wiped off the map.
It was clear that this was going to happen. That’s why Mainz hasn’t received any praise from me so far. You could almost think it was calculated purely according to the motto: Others won’t even suspend, so let’s get the good PR for it first, then the shitstorm will be less afterwards…
1. I wrote that I am NOT making this argument, but rather the argument not to impose blanket penalties but to deal with the case.
2. The question is whether he really had this conviction or whether he perhaps studied at the Lukas Podolski University, which wouldn’t even find Israel on a world map.
What I want to say: Maybe he’s parroting something that would require more general knowledge to understand than he has.