It was like a trip back to the old Corona times. Instead of cheering from the audience, there was only the squeaking of shoes on the parquet – and the applause of teammates. And as quiet as it is in the hall during the Champions League game between Basket Bonn and the Israeli club Hapoel Holon, it is just as quiet outside. Only the flags flutter in the wind and drizzle.
Even when the team from Holon arrived at the hall with a large police escort almost two hours before tip-off, there was no one in sight. Not a fan of the Baskets Bonn – but also not a supporter or opponent of the team from Israel, as some had feared in advance.
“I think we would all have done ourselves a disservice if we had played the game with spectators,” said Wolfgang Wiedlich, President of Baskets Bonn, defending the ghost game decision two days after the game against the emerging criticism.
“The annoyance of visitors while searching… I’ll put it this way: the entry process would have taken several hours if people had looked so closely. Well, and then the guest’s opinion was added, and then the cancellation was actually a complete deal.”
Ghost games as a future option?
After discussions with the players from Holon, he had the impression that a ghost game was the best option for them too. An assessment that the Israeli ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, does not share at all in the tagesschau:
“The terrorists cannot have the upper hand. They cannot disrupt our lives. They can’t question our democratic values, then they win. We all have to stick together to prevent this from happening.”
Volker Beck, President of the German-Israeli Society, also demands that sporting events with Israeli teams must be possible in Germany:
“It cannot be a solution that we only experience games with Israeli teams in a special situation because we can only watch them with a camera in the stadium instead of experiencing them live. This othering, which is already becoming a problem, is then promoted even further. And then terror also sorts out our social perception.”
Suggestion: Security precautions like at the airport
Othering, i.e. separating a group from the rest of the population. Sport in particular depends on the atmosphere of the fans in the hall, says Beck. Nevertheless, he also sees the challenges for the local clubs:
“You have to see that there is a safety problem. Safety precautions are needed. We may also have to take precautions like those we know from airports. If we capitulate to this, terror will have won.”
“That’s exactly right, the claim that a Jewish community can have, that people in Germany can have,” says the chairman of the police union Jochen Kopelke:
“And it is the state’s job to help. And that is also a clear opinion of the police union. Because that is exactly the sentence: the protection of Jewish life has top priority.”
A sentence that, in practice, means significantly more work for civil servants:
“The fact that we now have every event, sporting event, no matter what sport, what sports league, what other conditions – every single event now receives a focus from the security authorities.”
The police are particularly focusing on the European Football Championship in Germany
A sporting event in Germany is at the top of Kopelke’s list: the European Football Championship in Germany next summer. Israel’s national team could still qualify.
“Then we will have a completely different security assessment for Germany and the European Championships at least by the middle of next year. This means that this current topic will not let us go for the time being. And that’s right. These games must take place so that terrorism does not win.”
Basketball: create stable framework conditions in leagues
In this case, the police, the DFB and UEFA have to make complicated decisions. Decisions that have already been made in basketball – but still need to be made. Because Israeli clubs are still active in international competition there – and also play in Germany.
“There has to be agreements,” demands Marco Baldi, managing director of the top German club Alba Berlin:
“This is now repeating itself week after week, and the leagues are now required to discuss it with their clubs and possibly also provide a framework.”
Although there cannot be one solution for all games in Europe, the situation in Berlin, where there have recently been many anti-Semitic protests, is different than in cities in Latvia. But the clubs should be supported by the international leagues in deciding whether and how to hold the games.
“We have to throw everything into one pot and think carefully about it and adapt it to our own circumstances and then find the way. But there won’t be a pattern that can be transferred to all places, that definitely won’t be the case.”