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

It was striking that the highly influential Ultras Gelsenkirchen fan club did not protest against the DFL’s decision to allow an investor to join the club during the first twelve minutes of Schalke 04’s home match against SpVgg Greuther Fürth (2:2) on Friday evening.

Numerous other Ultra groups in Germany did the same, remaining silent in the early stages of their Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches and then shouting “Shit DFL” at the top of their voices. The Royal Blues had agreed to the DFL’s decision. However, the fact that the Schalke ultras still cheered does not mean that they were happy with it.

They published their opinion in their fan club magazine “Blauer Brief”, which is always distributed before home matches and is also available online. “Even if 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 reported 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, in contrast to the previous vote, voted ‘yes’ this time. Especially as Schalke’s vote would have been enough to reject the project,” wrote the Ultras and told the club management: “You are trusting people who have previously lied to you and taken the piss out of you. Backbone certainly looks different, dear management and supervisory board. “

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

But why didn’t the Ultras join in the protest? They are not part of the German fan scene association – and did not take part in previous protests either