Dissension between the Ultras Gelsenkirchen and the club leadership of FC Schalke 04. It’s about the DFL decision of the Schalke.

It was noticeable that the very influential fan club Ultras Gelsenkirchen did not protest against the DFL decision to allow an investor to join the club during the first twelve minutes of the home game against SpVgg Greuther Fürth (2:2) on Friday evening.

Numerous other ultra groups in Germany followed suit, remaining silent in the early stages of their Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 games, only to then yell “Shit DFL”. The Royal Blues had agreed to the DFL decision. The fact that the Schalke ultras still cheered does not mean that they are satisfied with it.

They published their opinion in their fan club magazine “Blauer Brief” (Blue Letter), which is always distributed before home matches and is also available online. “Even though there were differences to the vote a few months ago, we naturally continue to reject any influence from investors. It was generally surprising that there was another vote. Contrary to what was said after the first vote, the DFL continued to work on this project in the background without informing the clubs.

In this context, it is all the more critical that our own club voted ‘yes’ this time, in contrast to the previous vote. Especially since Schalke’s vote would have been enough to reject the proposal,” the Ultras wrote, adding: ‘You are trusting people here who have previously lied to you brazenly and taken you for a ride. Backbone certainly looks different, dear board of directors and supervisory board.’

This rebuke is surprising, as the Ultras have very good contacts with the supervisory board. The deputy chairman Sven Kirstein is an avowed member of the Ultras and was responsible for the choreographies for many years. The chairman of the committee, Axel Hefer, and the second deputy, Moritz Dörnemann, also know many Ultras very well. On this point, the disagreement between the club management and the fan group is unmistakable; the influence of the fan club was obviously limited.

But why didn’t the Ultras protest with them? They do not belong to the umbrella organization of German fan groups, and they did not participate in previous protest actions.