The shameful banner in the Union block Photo: Photo by Ronny HARTMANN / AFP
By Sebastian Karkos
Union and RB – it won’t be a big fan friendship anymore. As usual, the nearly 5,000 supporters of the Irons were silent for the first 15 minutes in Leipzig. They claim RB is a marketing construct…
Particularly shameful: In the 65th minute, some Union ultras made a tasteless gaffe. Like Cologne supporters a week ago at the RB guest game (0-0), Berlin supporters also showed a hate poster against Leipzig’s managing director Max Eberl (49), which alluded to his burnout illness (“Red Bull heals burnout !).
Coach Urs Fischer (56): “It doesn’t work at all, I have no respect for people. I can not comprehend that. I’m sorry.”
Union boss Dirk Zingler (58) also reacted: “On behalf of the club I would like to apologize for the stupidity of a few,” he wrote on Twitter. “Don’t let that get you down, Max Eberl!”
RB coach Marco Rose (46) angry: “We’re talking about it again. How long and how often do we want to offer the hollow rollers a platform?”
Almost gone: In the early stages, there was a poster on the Union block that showed the club name in Russian. An allusion to the events of April 2022, when the RB stadium management decided not to play the Nina Hagen anthem “Eisern Union” – out of concern that the melody could be reminiscent of the Russian national anthem and hurt Ukrainian visitors.
On Saturday evening the anthem was played normally – without background noise.