Bundesliga Supporters Declares Protest Over New Ticket Prices & Schedule

Multiple Bundesliga supporters have announced a silent protest for the upcoming midweek matchday in a stand against high ticket prices, kick off times, and treatment of fans.

The match between Werder Bremen and Hertha Berlin will commence this week’s action on Tuesday at the earlier time of 6:30 p.m. CET.

A spokesperson representing the interested of multiple Bundesliga teams said: “Large parts of the society are more or less excluded from professional football through sometimes absurd price hikes, adjustments to kick off times for foreign markets and a reduction of standing areas.”

Bundesliga supporters are set to stay quiet for the first 20 minutes of the majority of the nine midweek league matches, weeks after an association of German fans ended a dialogue with two associations, the German FA (DFB) and the German League (DFL).

At that time, supporters were frustrated by the announcement of Monday night games in the Bundesliga and the third division, said in a statement that they got the impression the discussions were disclosed “to avoid actions by all means with a media-effective offer for talks.”

The DFB answered that they regretted the coalition’s choice to end all talks, and announced that they will continue discussions.

Meanwhile, in a statement announced earlier this month, the coalition said that things remained the same and announced plans to stage a protest this week.

“While we had some success for the first time in 20 years of fan politics, the experience from the past year also showed that there was no improvement in a direct dialogue,” a spokesperson for the Fanszene Deutschland told ESPN FC. “Twenty years of dialogue with associations and clubs have shown that the only way forward is through loudness and provocation.”

The spokesperson emphasized that they felt ultras where pushed out of stadiums, and was also critical of VAR, as supporters in stadiums are alerted when a decision is taking place, but fail to see the questioned incident again.

“We’d like to think that they are seeking an overall exchange of the supporters,” the spokesperson said. “Those inside the stadium no longer play a big part in the overall communication, they are rather regarded as cash cows. And those are all issues we take an active stance against with our protests.”