German soccer fans protest by throwing hundreds of tennis balls
Feb 19, 2018, 3:08 PM | Updated: 6:38 pm
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. RB Leipzig was delayed tonight after fans threw tennis balls onto the pitch to protest against the game being on a Monday night. #AgainstModernFootball
— FTS Football (@FromTStands) February 19, 2018
(🎥/@Frankfurtnativ)pic.twitter.com/t2y3QbQnqZ
Supporters for the German soccer club Eintracht Frankfurt wanted their protests to be heard, and they did so in a creative way Monday.
Following protests before kickoff that delayed the start time of the game, the supporters threw hundreds of tennis balls and more onto the pitch at the end of halftime. In order to get rid of so many tennis balls quickly, the grounds crew had to use leaf blowers to get rid of them. It was yet another delay for the game.
The protests come following the Bundesliga, the top league in Germany, introducing Monday night games into the league’s schedule. Now, this might sound silly to heavily object to, but hundreds of supporters are often traveling hundreds of miles to cheer their team on in road fixtures.
all happening at Frankfurt vs Leipzig, 1000s of tennis balls thrown onto the pitch in protest to tonight’s game being shown on a Monday night, game paused for 15 minutes, mental #SGERBL pic.twitter.com/GbhAODXaQN
— Bealo (@bealolufc) February 19, 2018
Having a game on a Monday night complicates their travel and work schedule in order to do what clubs want their supporters to do, which is support and travel with the club.
Frankfurt took on RB Leipzig, whose fans also announced a boycott of supporting the club in Frankfurt, a roughly 250-mile trip. The second Monday night game of the season is a home game for the club Borussia Dortmund and its fans are calling for an all-out boycott of the game.
With the combination of fans’ travel schedules becoming more difficult and their feelings on the Monday night games being more about money than making the schedule easier, they made sure their displeasure was known.