German fans protest anything that they feel threatens soccer as they know it. But do the people who have fought the battles for years really speak for everyone?
FRANKFURT — There is a single black flag where the heart of the Commerzbank Arena should be. All around it, in the stadium’s Kurve, the terraces that are ordinarily home to Eintracht Frankfurt’s most ardent and raucous fans are empty. Exposed, they are just concrete: desolate, silent and gray.
The flag, a couple dozen rows high, looms behind the goal posts in the middle of the space. Just a black flag, inscribed with one word — Montag — scored out by a red circle and a slash.
No Mondays.
The campaign has now been running for nearly three years. It has been taken up not only by Eintracht’s ultras, but by their counterparts at clubs across Germany. The fans do not believe Bundesliga games should be held on Monday nights — a sign, they say, of broadcasting schedules being given priority over match-going fans — and so they have done all they can to show their displeasure. Continue reading