The insults came via email. Christian Streich should “shut up,” we read, take care of football and not say such nonsense. They counted more than sixty such letters this week at SC Freiburg. Anonymous, without a name, without an address – full of anger. Some people called the club’s office and vehemently demanded a personal conversation with Streich, the coach of the Bundesliga club. One of the club’s approximately 65,000 members threatened to leave.
Streich had said sentences like this in the press conference before the game against Hoffenheim: “No one needs to complain if they stay put or claim things like: An AfD voter is a protest voter.” And: “Everyone in this country supports it called upon to stand up and clearly position oneself in the family circle, at work or elsewhere. It’s 5 minutes to 12. And no one should complain if it is ruled by an authoritarian, right-wing nationalist group.” The day before, Streich was among several thousand demonstrators in Freiburg. Across Germany, well over a million people were now on the streets to demonstrate against the AfD and for democracy.
