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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Eintracht Frankfurt’s Bundesliga recreation in opposition to Wolfsburg was briefly interrupted Sunday as house followers continued protests in opposition to outdoors buyers by concentrating on the visiting membership.
The second half had began simply minutes earlier than Frankfurt supporters threw small plastic balls onto the sector behind one of many targets. A minimum of one small plastic pig was additionally thrown, touchdown beside one of many purpose posts.
The followers additionally held an enormous banner criticizing Volkswagen-backed Wolfsburg with an expletive, saying the “investor membership” ought to be excluded from the German soccer federation (DFB).
The sport was held up for round six minutes whereas the gadgets have been eliminated earlier than play resumed with Wolfsburg main 2-1.
Omar Marmoush scored in stoppage time to salvage a 2-2 draw for Frankfurt.
The house crew’s supporters have been objecting to Wolfsburg’s standing in distinction to their very own, the place followers have a majority say in how the membership is run.
The multi-sport membership VfL Wolfsburg was based in 1945, solely seven years after the town of Wolfsburg was itself based for Volkswagen manufacturing facility staff.
Wolfsburg remains to be backed by the German auto producer, certainly one of solely two exceptions to the German soccer league’s 50-plus-1 rule that limits how a lot of a membership an outdoor investor can management. The rule states that members of a membership have to retain management of voting rights – a minimum of 50% and one vote.
Bayer Leverkusen is the opposite exception, because it was based for Bayer manufacturing facility staff. The pharmaceutical big nonetheless owns the membership. Each Wolfsburg and Leverkusen are granted exemptions from 50-plus-1 as a result of they’ve had the identical backers for greater than 20 years.
Hoffenheim was one other exception, however backer Dietmar Hopp transferred most of his voting rights again to the membership final yr to carry it according to the rule.
Leipzig, which was based by Pink Bull in 2009, handled the 50-plus-1 rule by limiting membership to a choose few members related to the power drinks producer.
The rule was strengthened final yr when it was cleared by the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Workplace), but it surely stays a sticking level for supporters and membership officers whose pursuits typically reveal.
American funding group 777 Companions took over Hertha Berlin as its majority shareholder final yr, however membership members nonetheless retain the vast majority of voting rights.
The Frankfurt followers’ protest on Sunday got here regardless of the German soccer league (DFL) on Wednesday scrapping its controversial plan to herald an outdoor investor for a share of media rights revenue.
The final two weekends had seen in depth protests throughout Germany’s prime two divisions due to that plan, and no additional protests have been anticipated after the DFL deserted the thought.
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