Dietmar Hopp says he “cannot understand” ultras making him the face of football's commercialization, but that he’d be “happy to forget it” if they’d stop.

Well, that’s exactly it: The protests are not going stop, partly *because* he doesn’t understand the problem.

Thread. https://twitter.com/zdfsportstudio/status/1246468921156304897

Dietmar Hopp says he’d be happy to forget about the protests. But in the eyes of many fans and ultra groups, TSG Hoffenheim’s contribution to taking German football into what they see as the wrong direction is not something which can just be forgotten.

Ultras in Germany are not protesting against Hopp as a person. They protest against TSG Hoffenheim bringing German football one step closer to what they see as the game being taken away from its roots as a Volkssport, the people’s sport.

That’s why football being accessible (be it in terms of ticket prices, kick off times or anything else) is a matter which ultras, and match going fans in general, care a lot about.

Hoffenheim’s rise is being seen by many as the game in Germany going towards the hyper-capitalist world of the Premier League, where people are being priced out of football, where the fans have little to no influence over the futures of their own football clubs.

I believe part of the problem is that Dietmar Hopp thinks his investment at Hoffenheim is being criticized as a stand-alone move

That’s not the case.

Hoffenheim’s rise has affected German football as a whole. Many fans & ultras here see it as a red line being crossed, which later allowed the existence of a football club which exists for the sole purpose of marking an energy drink.

Hopp’s investment doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

As long as he doesn’t understand that, there’s no point in asking for the protests to stop, because they won’t.

Him defining it as “hate and incitement” without even understanding what it’s about would only lead to the protests continuing, or even intensifying.

Before asking for the protests to stop, Dietmar Hopp needs to understand why heavily investing in a club which was irrelevant up until his millions came along is something ultras (and many fans) are not willing to accept, and what the heart of the issue is: Not himself.

End.