Sport Protest in Champions League
At kick-off, Union Berlin fans vent their anger at the Olympic Stadium
As of: 7:25 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Trouble despite great anticipation: Union fans and their blatant accusation against UEFA
What: REUTERS
Union Berlin plays its first home game in the Champions League in the unpopular Olympic Stadium. The supporters’ criticism is not aimed at the club leadership, but at UEFA. When they arrived, numerous fans became victims of completely different protests.
There were still seven minutes until kick-off on Tuesday evening. The mood among the 73,000 spectators in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium was excited for 1. FC Union Berlin’s first home game in the Champions League. However, it was only a home game because it took place in Berlin – in the venue of the city rival and not in the local arena in the Köpenick district, the “Alte Försterei”.
He finally expressed how upset a large part of the appendix is about this. Shortly before kick-off, banners were raised on the back straight – where the hard core of the Union team stood – which read in white on black to the European association Uefa: “You don’t care about the sport – all you care about is money” – translated: “You don’t care about sport, all you care about is money”.
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In addition, countless banners could be seen showing UEFA’s guidelines that must be observed and adhered to with regard to home games in the premier class. You could read about the number of VIP seats and the number of media seats.
When the players finally came onto the pitch for the game and the Champions League anthem was played, many supporters whistled. Later, when the ball rolled, the appendix enthusiastically cheered on their team as usual.
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Union club bosses decided in the summer to play all three home games in the Olympic Stadium. As in the 2021/22 season, when the Köpenickers played their games in the Conference League there, as the “Alte Försterei” did not yet meet the UEFA guidelines at the time.
Viewership record broken after 45 years
Union’s bosses justified the visit to the home of their city rivals primarily by offering many Berliners and not least the over 55,000 club members the opportunity to watch the international games. In an initial sales phase, Union offered tickets for all three games as a package – all 40,000 packages were sold out within a few days. There is talk of a mid-single-digit million amount that the move is expected to bring into Union’s coffers.
The variant from last year, when Union played its Europa League home games at the “Alte Försterei”, would also have been possible in the premier class, although due to the guidelines there were significant restrictions on spectator capacity – hence the protest.
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Before the game, climate activists blocked access roads to the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday evening. On the Rudolf Wissell Bridge, the demonstrators stuck themselves to the street and blocked cars, as a reporter from the German Press Agency reported. The police were on site and tried to remove the people from the street. There were significant delays.
The actions could not prevent record attendance. The 73,000 arrived more or less on time at the unpopular Olympic Stadium. The Unioner’s previous record games were a long time ago: in 1976 and 1978 they played against BFC Dynamo in the World Youth Stadium – the stadium was located where the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) now has its headquarters in Berlin – in front of 45,000 spectators (1:0/0:2) in the GDR Oberliga.
