If football professionals make disparaging remarks about their own team, they are usually fined by their club. Internal buggers are frowned upon. Something strange happened at Arminia Bielefeld at the weekend. Captain Fabian Klos denied his team’s “character” and said he couldn’t protect this team because: “This team isn’t a team at all.” For such harsh criticism, Klos did not receive a fine from his club, but express praise. Arminia writes on the Internet: “Our record player was a role model in what he did, in what he said and in what he expressed with his emotions; we thank Fabi for his appearance in the dialogue with fans, referees, opponents and the public.”
On Friday evening, the 35-year-old experienced what was probably his darkest lesson in football. The cause for alarming conditions in the Bielefeld fan block and for several crying fits from Klos was a 0:4 defeat of his second division team Arminia in the relegation first leg at third division team SV Wehen Wiesbaden. Even more dramatic than the emerging free fall of the traditional East Westphalian club from the Bundesliga to the third division was that the private broadcaster Sat1 and the pay broadcaster Sky broadcast the decline and capitulation of the German Sports Club (DSC) Arminia Bielefeld live across the country.
From the 78th minute onwards, instead of playing football, Klos actually only had to do with calming down the freaking out almost 2000 Arminia fans in their block behind the goal. They ignited fountains of fire, shot rockets into the air, threw smoldering smoke pots onto the field and attempted to break down a through gate onto the field. They couldn’t. After many chaotic years of Arminia, these fans were obviously at the end of their tether and were overwhelmed by fatalism. They didn’t seem to care. It even seemed as if they longed for the game to be abandoned, the second leg canceled and their club immediately relegated.
“It’s about the image that the club gives”
While the game was interrupted for 21 minutes from the 83rd minute at 0:4 and players and referees remained in the catacombs, Klos stood alone on the field in front of the Arminia fan block and, as a desperate and repeatedly crying tamer, tried to stop the rioting to tame fans. He probably didn’t do it primarily to ensure the continuation of the game, but to save the face of his club. “It’s about the image that the club gives,” he later said, “and that is mein Club!” Born in Gifhorn, he has been playing for Bielefeld for twelve years.
The crying tamer: Fabian Klos, in Bielefeld for twelve years.
(Foto: Thomas F. Starke/Getty Images)
In their condition, Arminia doesn’t have a very good chance of turning the result on Tuesday in their own stadium. “The thing is through,” says even Klos – it would be the second descent within twelve months. Worse is that the club, founded in 1905, has reached one of the lowest points in its history emotionally. “We have to question everything now,” said Klos in the hour zero.
The striker has experienced everything you can experience as a professional footballer with this club. He was promoted three times and relegated twice with Bielefeld, played two years in the Bundesliga, three years in the third division and seven years in the second division; Arminia was chronically almost broke at this time, but was then rescued by an alliance of regional companies. The relegation from the Bundesliga is not really a huge drama for this club, which operates with modest means, nor that the best players left – but the free fall in the second division, too, was dramatic.
The DFB control committee has initiated investigations, Arminia faces a severe penalty
Three coaches (Uli Forte, Daniel Scherning, Uwe Koschinat) in eleven months have failed to teach the remaining and new players competitive football. “In the beginning, under Uwe Koschinat, everyone somehow swam along,” says Klos about the coach who took office in March, “but in the last two weeks the character of this team had to be denied.” Even when they could have secured their place in the class with a win in Magdeburg, they went down 0:4. Now again. “This team isn’t a team,” said Klos, “and I can’t say everything I think right now.” There’s still one game left. And after all, he is the captain. “I can’t really be mad at the fans,” said Klos. Koschinat also defended the appendix: “At some point the barrel will overflow.”
On Saturday, the control committee of the German Football Association initiated investigations. The Arminia faces a severe punishment. Because there is hardly any time until the second leg on Tuesday (8.45 p.m., Sat1), a ghost game is not to be feared. Almost 24,000 tickets had already been sold by Sunday. The team has trained again and the atmosphere at the club is extremely tense. It will be exciting to see what performance the team can still show after the escalation and Klos’ criticism.
