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Bundesliga: Fan spokeswoman Helen Breit demands promised change in values

Bundesliga soccer
Fan spokeswoman Helen Breit: “It is essential for me to actively represent our interests”

Asks the Bundesliga clubs to really use the corona crisis for structural change: Fan spokeswoman Helen Breit from the “Our Curve” initiative.

© Philipp von Ditfurth / DPA

With the heads of the DFL and DFB, she discusses the lessons that the Bundesliga should learn from the corona crisis. Now the promised change in values ​​must come. Helen Breit from Freiburg is the face of a more confident fan scene.

When Helen Breit was first taken to the SC Freiburg stadium by her father at the age of five, she fell asleep on his lap. Today, the 33-year-old is wide awake, quick-witted and sure of topics when it comes to the concerns of fans. As a board member and spokeswoman for “Our Curve”, the educational scientist sits on talk shows, gives many interviews – and discusses with eye-level officials such as Christian Seifert and Fritz Keller. “When it comes to football, I always talk a lot,” says the Freiburg native in a conversation with the German press agency.

“That makes her excellent. I am very excited when she is in a group, because then you have the guarantee that it will be factual,” says fan researcher Harald Lange from the University of Würzburg. “Helen Breit is a prime example of how fan culture has changed.” For example, the Ultras are now open to women.

Fan scene is increasingly represented by women

As representatives of the typical Bundesliga supporters, many still expect rattling men with fan scarves and tattoos. According to Lange, between 25 and 30 percent of stadium visitors are female nowadays – and this is gradually being reflected in responsible positions. So Sandra Schwedler at FC St. Pauli, who is currently the only supervisory board chairman in German professional football, originally came from the fan scene. The Sophia Gerschel from Karlsruhe is the spokeswoman for the Federal Working Group of Fan Projects (BAG).

At the age of ten, Helen Breit was already in the children’s block on the north stand at the SC. At 14, she traveled with the accompaniment from the fan scene to Zurich for the Freiburg Uefa Cup game against FC St. Gallen – and thought it was great. At 17 she started to get involved in active scenes: first at the UFFF fan club (“Incredible Freiburg football fetishists”), then at the “Supporters Crew”, which she has represented in the nationwide “Our Curve” alliance since 2012.

“In the Dreisam Stadium I am about 28 years old and I feel very connected. I also go to all away games and to go away from Freiburg, it always takes a long time,” she says with a smile.

Helen Breit: Important voice when fans return partially

With Fritz Keller, the president of the German Football Association (DFB), she fought many ostriches when he was still a club boss in Freiburg. During the Corona mandatory break, Helen Breit was in an ad hoc group with representatives of the DFB and the German Football League (DFL). “I experience a respectful relationship with the tops of the DFL and DFB, such as Christian Seifert or Friedrich Curtius,” she says. “Our curve” is an important voice in the debate about the partial return of stadium spectators and also in the fan cultures of the DFL and DFB.

The fan organizations have called for a reform of professional football. “We were told that fan representatives would be part of the task force,” said Helen Breit. The committee had announced DFL boss Seifert. Numerous fan scenes had come together to form the “Our Football” alliance, which it claims to be supported by around 400,000 fans. They demand that the DFL and DFB act on behalf of clubs and associations – before the start of the season.

Watch the video: World champion and scandal professional: What is Kevin Großkreutz actually doing today? World champion, cup winner and German champion: Kevin Großkreutz’s football career has a lot to offer. But escapades outside the square cast a shadow over his successful career – the original Borussian is disappearing more and more from the scene. What happened to the soccer player? At the beginning of his career, the all-rounder developed into an absolute regular at BVB under Jürgen Klopp and won several titles. In 2014 he only warms the bank during the World Cup – he can still call himself world champion. But afterwards it goes steeply downhill. After injuries and a change of coach, Großkreutz is no longer at BVB and moves to Turkey to Galatasaray Istanbul. But after a few months the experiment is over again – Großkreutz is homesick. This is followed by changes to VFB Stuttgart and SV Darmstadt – but the Dortmund native cannot build on old achievements. Instead, the scandals multiply. Even in Dortmund, Großkreutz made headlines with an alleged doner throw at a Cologne fan. During his time in Stuttgart, Großkreutz went on a trip to the brothel with youth players from the VFB and got into a wild fight. The consequence: contract termination. The all-rounder has been playing for the third division KFC Uerdingen since 2018. Meanwhile, the 31-year-old is also on the siding here. In his home country, Großkreutz trains the district league club Türkspor Dortmund – possibly the beginning of a new successful career.

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Football is sliding down the list of priorities

“If the associations are really serious about their self-criticism and actually initiate a change in structure and values ​​in football, then it is possible that we will all go back to the football stadium with a smile on our faces at some point because we can then say: we have the break optimally used “, Breit describes a – as she says herself -” utopia “.

“I think the longer it takes that we can’t all go to the stadium together, the more we are challenged to organize this social cohesion differently,” says Breit, referring to the consequences of the Corona epidemic for active fan work. The partial admission of spectators will “influence a lot again” in professional football in the next few months.

Breit sees as a board member of “Our Curve” a possible loss of interest of fans in football. “Groups have already said: They will go to the stadium in the usual way – or not at all. For some people, the number one priority was: attending football games. Of course, it just slips further down. It remains to be seen how many Then people come back and say: It’s still in first to third place, or how many it’s in fifth to sixth place. ”

“I enjoy doing fan politics”

“It is essential for me in football to actively represent your interests. I enjoy doing fan politics. I noticed early on that you could help shape it,” says Helen Breit. She was once a social worker in youth welfare, completed her master’s degree in educational science in 2015 and is now a scholarship holder on the way to a doctorate. Topic: “Difficult to reach young refugees.”

Helen Breit knows the work and culture of fans through and through. And apparently her arguments as spokeswoman for “Our Curve” are well received in the scene. She has not yet received a shit storm on social media. Don’t get any misogynistic emails either, she says. “It is our practice that people who have competencies, have time, want to be chosen to express themselves – regardless of their gender. We are organized democratically throughout.” At the same time, of course, she also knows: “What people talk about and what they tell you are two different things.”

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