It wasn’t just FC Schalke 04’s first-round match that was marred by a racism incident. 1. FC Kaiserslautern was also affected.

There would certainly have been plenty of sporting reasons to talk about 1. FC Kaiserslautern’s 7-0 victory over RSV Eintracht Stahnsdorf. The second-division side, which had just defeated FC Schalke 04 1-0 last week, has now comfortably advanced to the second round of the DFB Cup.

But just as in Schalke’s first-round match against 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig, the purely sporting aspect—Schalke’s 1-0 win in extra time—took a back seat. Just as in Leipzig, a racist incident occurred in Potsdam.

Midway through the second half, a visiting player from 1. FC Kaiserslautern, who had been warming up on the sideline, was insulted. Thanks to the quick intervention of spectators and security personnel at the Karl-Liebknecht-Stadion in Potsdam, the perpetrator was identified. The match continued without interruption.

“There’s always some idiot in the crowd,” said Kaiserslautern coach Torsten Lieberknecht, who praised the intervention of the Stahnsdorf fans: “It doesn’t reflect what Stahnsdorf stands for, nor how we were welcomed here.”

Lieberknecht did not name the player involved and sought to calm the situation: “Now it’s time to take a deep breath.” Stahnsdorf’s press officer Kay Seifarth emphasized that the club would investigate the case with the utmost thoroughness.

It was nearly impossible to keep the name of the player involved in the Schalke match under wraps. Christopher Antwi-Adjei brought the incident to the referee’s attention himself. He had been insulted from the stands while taking a throw-in. He did not want to repeat the words that had been used after the game.

“That was racism. It has no place not only on the field but also in everyday life. I don’t even want to mention the words. I find this disappointing. These are isolated individuals in the stadium who think they’re better than others. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, but I signaled to the linesman that something had happened,” he said instead after the game. with dpa