Hoppgate

The relationship between Borussia Dortmund and TSG 1899 Hoffenheim has never been easy. To describe it as difficult might have already been an understatement before our match on Saturday. On Saturday, it was however taken to a new level. German media has already labeled it as Hopp-Gate. Read what happened.

In recent matches between BVB and Hoffenheim, the atmosphere already had been boiling hot. Dietmar Hopp, the Hoffenheim patron, had already vowed to never set foot inside the Westfalenstadium again. On Saturday, the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, it seems like Hoffenheim tried to turn things around. Whereas Borussia Dortmund supporters could not be banned from the Hoffenheim ground, attempts were made to ban Anti-Dietmar-Hopp chants from the stadium. It is still unclear who exactly caused the sonic attack against BVB supporters but without a doubt it happened.

Before the gates of the Hoffenheim ground where opened on Saturday, distracting signals could be heard from inside the stadium. It was 12.30, three hours before kick-off and arriving supporters were only wondering what this noise was, most of them filed it under stadium speakers check and forgot about it. However, it was not the last we heard about those mystic noises that night. Instead, high-frequency sounds came up again and again during the matches, always in situations, when the supporters of the Deutscher Meister tried to chant against Dietmar Hopp and his little project. The chants were oversounded and several fans left the province with a headache, ear problems or even ringing in the ears. Some of them pressed charges against Hoffenheim and the whole club was blamed for the Hopp-Gate. It's hard to believe that it was only at random that the sounds started to play in these special situations. But that was only the start of the absurd theatre of Hoffenheim.

When several newspaper and online-magazines started to write about the incident, Hoffenheim put all the blame away from then and stated that they did not know about anything. Dietmar Hopp even stated that the charges pressed against his club would be ridiculous. Instead, he put himself in the position of the victim and said that he should sue several Dortmund supporters for insulting him at several occasions. Late on Monday, it was announced that the club had found the person responsible for the installation of the sound system that had produced the high-frequency sounds. In a press release, Hoppenheim stated that it was a solo attempt by one of the employees. Neither Hopp nor anybody of the officials knew about the idea of the employee who said that it was something like a joke for him and that he wanted to something against the insults directed to Dietmar Hopp. However, it needs to be pointed out that it was not the first time that this sound system could be seen in Hoppenheim. Last season during a match against Frankfurt, you could not hear the noises but photos of that match prove that it was there before. At a first glance, it looks like Hopp and his little playmobile figures needed a pawn sacrifice and found it in that man who will now face investigations of that matter. However, press is running wild on this incident, several supporters are upset and you can't lose the feeling that there is something wrong at TSG. Several points are hinting that there is more behind that story than the officials want to admit and we can be pretty sure that the last word is still left to be spoken. Borussia Dortmund has not commented on the incident yet, we will keep you posted with all the recent news concerning this matter.

steph, Vanni, 16.08.2011

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