Soccer, England: After the club was taken over by a Saudi consortium, Newcastle United asked its fans not to wear fake Arab clothing in the stadium. We ask fans “to refrain from wearing traditional Arab clothing or headgear inspired by the Middle East at games, unless they usually wear them,” the club wrote in a statement on Wednesday. Some fans recently wore Arab-inspired headgear or robes in the stadium. This could be “culturally inappropriate” and people could feel attacked by it. However, this is not the case with the new owners of the club.
The Premier League had approved the takeover of Newcastle United by a consortium with Saudi participation, as the club is not under the control of Saudi Arabia from their point of view. Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund is said to hold 80 percent of the consortium and is now the majority owner of the association. In addition, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is accused of serious human rights violations, is the most influential man in the fund. Because the fund is viewed as “separate from the state”, a takeover was permitted from the league’s point of view.
There should be a change not only in the stands, the new rich club is also setting the course on a personnel level: Steve Bruce is no longer the club’s coach. They separated by “mutual agreement”, according to Newcastle. Bruce has been in charge at United since July 2019. After eight game days, the Magpies are in 19th place with only three draws. For the time being, assistant coach Graeme Jones will take over the training sessions.
Football, second division: Werder Bremen released striker Niclas Füllkrug from training up to and including Wednesday after an argument in the dressing room. The attacker clashed with Clemens Fritz, head of professional football, following the 3-0 defeat at Darmstadt 98 on Sunday, the club announced on Wednesday. Accordingly, the 28-year-old has become “several times abusive towards the ex-Werder captain”. “As an association, we could not accept this incident. We therefore made the decision to release Niclas for three days,” said Bremen’s managing director Frank Baumann and explained: “In addition to the temporary release, Niclas will donate an amount that has already been set to social projects that we work together as an association. “
On Thursday there will be another meeting with the Füllkrug. “We deliberately gave Niclas these three days in order to be able to reflect on his behavior on Sunday. We expect a reaction from him in addition to the insight,” emphasized Baumann. The former Hanoverian regretted his action and said: “I apologized to Clemens, the coaching team and also the team. I have crossed a line between the player and the person in charge. That shouldn’t happen to me.”
Amateursport, Corona: Organized sport in Germany lost almost 800,000 members in the first year of the corona pandemic. The German Olympic Sports Confederation announced the final figures for 2020 on Wednesday. The loss is 2.85 percent, for the first half of 2021 the DOSB expects a further decline of the almost 27 million members – and is trying to counteract this with campaigns.
“Without being able to finally evaluate the negative effects of the again very difficult first half of 2021, when our clubs were unable to carry out their offers or only to a very limited extent, it can already be stated clearly today: Our country must now get fully moving again,” said DOSB President Alfons Hörmann. This is particularly true for the age group of children “under six years of age, for whom the decline in 2020 will be between 17 and 26 percent”.
Above all, these numbers are a “severe setback for sports Germany,” said Hörmann. According to a survey, the major sports clubs are hardest hit by the decline in membership in 2020. The Freiburger Kreis, the working group of major German sports clubs, determined more than 10 percent. In a year-on-year comparison from April 1, 2020 to April 1, 2021, it should even be more than 13 percent. “We hope that with our campaigns we can make a contribution to overcoming the challenging situation,” said DOSB CEO Veronika Rücker: “But for such campaigns to have lasting effects, the importance of exercise and sport in our society as a whole must be strengthened . ” A new lockdown must therefore be prevented.
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