News

German Soccer Fans Attack Their Own Players After Relegation

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 21st, 2021 · 9:54 AM EDT

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It’s the beautiful game, until you get relegated.

That means you drop down a division because you had a crappy season and finished 18th, 19th, or 20th in the league.

It happened to German club Schalke 04, who are usually pretty damn good, and have had a couple of Americans in their ranks over the years. But this year they have just two wins, seven draws, and 21 losses, which means they are being booted from the Bundesliga and into the country’s second division.

That resulted in this:

Schalke players were attacked by their own fans after getting relegated from the Bundesliga.

Fans chased some of the players on the stadium perimeters in scenes that sources told @uersfeld were filmed early Wednesday morning.

(via @VoetbalUltras)pic.twitter.com/GTvNXnPKSs

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 21, 2021

This is ridiculous. There were reports that they damaged some cars and threw projectiles and other stuff like that.

One of the players is quoted anonymously:

“We were told loud and clear that we should be ashamed of ourselves and that all the players who won’t be there next year should piss off. If that wouldn’t happen, life would be made a real hell for us,” said the player and added:

“We were attacked with eggs. After that, a firecracker went off, and the situation escalated completely. The fans came at us. At that point, we were just running. It was fear, pure fear! Some of us were hit by kicks and punches. I’m shocked, and I don’t know how we’re going to play the next few games.”

This would be like the Eagles going 0-17 and then the F Lot Crew tries to fight them, like Mike Scott. Or the Flyers are met at their cars by an angry mob.

Say what you will about Philly sports fans or anybody on this side of the pond, but we’d never chase down our own players, throw eggs at them, kick them, punch them, or whatever.

Outrageous behavior!