Soccer teams in Germany simply quit playing in league game to protest fans’ banner
This is something even long-time soccer fans have probably never seen.
Saturday’s Hoffenheim-Bayern Munich game came to a halt when players quit in protest of a sign from Bayern fans in the stands that said Hoffenheim owner Dietmar Hopp “remains a son of a whore.”
Players ran toward the fans in the stands asking them to remove the banner.
After a third stoppage in the game, players from both teams simply began kicking the ball among themselves and the goalies walked out to the center of the field. All the while the clock ran with Bayern ahead 6-0 in the Bundesliga game in Hoffenheim.
This was a strange sight:
Here is the banner:
The game sort of resembled an episode of “The Simpsons,” except this time both teams were kicking the ball around without seemingly trying to score:
Why is there such anger toward Hopp? Commentator Lars Sivertsen explained:
