Another fan protest
©IMAGO
In the middle of the big dispute over majority shareholder Martin Kind, Hannover 96 also won the top game of the 2nd Bundesliga and continued its successful streak in the new year. After a game interruption of more than 20 minutes due to renewed fan protests against the planned investor entry into the German Football League, the 96ers beat SpVgg Greuther Fürth 2-1 (0-1) on Friday evening and thus moved up to the relegation place for the time being.
In front of 31,500 spectators, Armindo Sieb gave Fürth the lead in the 29th minute. At the beginning of the second half, the game was interrupted because Hanover fans threw tennis balls onto the field several times. This break only helped their own team, because after the restart Phil Neumann (71st) and Nicolò Tresoldi (90th + 1) scored two more goals for the now much more powerful 96ers. The team of long-time Fürth coach Stefan Leitl has now won four games in a row and is once again a serious candidate for promotion.
In addition to the fan protest against the DFL’s planned investor deal, there is still a rift in Hanover between Martin Kind, managing director of the spun-off professional football company, and the management of the parent club Hannover 96 eV. Just a week earlier, the game was almost abandoned in the 4-3 win at Hamburger SV because Hannover supporters in the fan block held up a poster with a crosshair and Kind’s face.
During the Fürth game there were the usual chants in the 96 fan block (“Child has to go”) and again a crosshair poster: This time it didn’t show the 96 boss, but the wizard Harry Potter from the novels by Joanne K. Rowling.
The eV leadership had only expressed massive criticism of Kind and the DFL the day before the Fürth game, thereby further inflaming the issue. Their accusation is that the hearing aid entrepreneur secretly voted for the investor entry at the DFL general meeting in December and thereby helped the project achieve the necessary two-thirds majority in the first place. Kind also refused to provide any information on Friday, citing the secret nature of the vote.
Hertha BSC shakes its way to victory against 1. FC Magdeburg in the majority
Hertha BSC has continued its upward trend. At the start of the 22nd matchday, coach Pál Dárdai’s team achieved their second win in a row in an attractive encounter with a 3:2 (2:1) win over 1. FC Magdeburg. Fans also protested at this game on Friday evening against the planned entry of an investor into the DFL.
In front of 52,652 spectators in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, captain Baris Atik gave the guests, who had recently inflicted their first league defeat on leaders FC St. Pauli, the lead in the 22nd minute. Hertha captain Fabian Reese with a penalty (33rd) and Palkó Dárdai (39th) turned the game against ten Magdeburgers. Jean Hugonet was shown a red card in the 37th minute after an emergency stop.
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Tobias Müller (51′) equalized despite being outnumbered, before Reese secured Hertha’s success with his second goal (59′). After the midfield duel, Hertha now has 32 points, Magdeburg remains at 27 points. In stoppage time, substitute Tatsuya Ito hit the crossbar and missed the equalizer again.
Referee Florian Exner from Münster found a diplomatic solution to the renewed fan protests. After the game was interrupted for around six minutes shortly before half-time due to tennis balls being thrown onto the field, the referee ordered the teams into the changing rooms and after the half-time break had the remaining playing time of the first half played before the sides were changed. There were several interruptions due to pyrotechnics from the Magdeburg block before and in the second half of the game.
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