BERLIN (AP) — Bochum forward Takuma Asano capitalized on Bundesliga protests by eating one of the chocolate coins thrown by fans onto the field and then scoring a decisive goal on Saturday.
“Chocolate made power for me. It was good to eat chocolate for the game today,” Asano said with a laugh.
The Japan international availed himself of the free snack when Union Berlin supporters threw chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil onto the field to protest the German soccer league’s plans to bring in an outside investor.
Asano picked up one of the seasonal treats, unwrapped the gold foil, and ate the chocolate. Then he followed up by scoring to give his team a 1-0 lead. Bochum went on to beat Union 3-0.
“I saw a chocolate and I took it," Asano told Sky Sport. “I love sweets but I don’t eat (them) often for the football. But today I ate on the pitch because chocolate was there.”
Most of the chocolate coins went uneaten, however — Asano couldn’t down all of them.
The Union fans also threw tennis balls onto the field, leading referee Sven Jablonski to halt the game for four minutes.
It was just one match that was halted briefly on Saturday as supporters across Germany again found various ways to express their discontent with the league's governing body. Some fans withdrew their support for their teams for the first 12 minutes, others forced games to stop, and others simply cursed the DFL, as the league body is known.
Many supporters are deeply unhappy with the DFL’s plan to sell a stake of future broadcast revenues to an outside investor, a “strategic marketing partnership” that was approved by 24 of the 36 teams in top two divisions on Monday.
The supporters are concerned about the influence an investor could wield over the league and potential changes to make it more attractive to TV audiences at the expense of fans who attend games.
Wolfsburg’s match at Darmstadt was suspended briefly when visiting fans set off an impressive but disruptive pyrotechnics display. Chocolate coins were thrown on the field there, too.
The DFL got a taste on Friday of what was to come over the weekend when Borussia Mönchengladbach and Werder Bremen supporters stayed silent for the first 12 minutes of their game, then the Gladbach fans forced a five-minute stoppage with chocolate coins.
“It was no fun at all, it reminded me of the coronavirus,” Bremen midfielder Leonardo Bittencourt said of the fans’ silence, referring to the games played with no paying spectators during the pandemic.
Bundesliga games again kicked off to restrained support on Saturday, with most fans also opting to stay silent for the first 12 minutes — a reference to the influence of fans as the proverbial 12th player on a soccer team.
The supporters also stayed silent in the second division, where Nuremberg fans threw tennis balls onto the field to force a break in play during their team’s game with Hamburger SV.
“We won’t play any part in your deal – (expletive) DFL!” read huge banners in front of both sets of fans.
Hertha Berlin and Osnabrück supporters had the same banners in Berlin, where both sets of fans stayed silent early on.
Magdeburg’s game against Fortuna Düsseldorf was loud from the beginning, however, with the home team’s ultras saying their club had already voted against the DFL’s proposed deal on Monday.
Fan clubs and groups known as ultras announced their protest plans in a joint statement on Friday.
“We are not prepared to stand idly by as German soccer gets sold out,” they said.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Ciarán Fahey, The Associated Press
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