A district sports court of the Lower Saxony Football Association (NFV) ruled on Tuesday against the amateur soccer club VfL Sittensen for abandoning a match following homophobic remarks. The men’s team from the 1st Kreisklasse Rotenburg (Wümme) South must, according to FuPa.net, bear the costs of the proceedings, and the league game scheduled for early June against SV Horstedt will be recorded as a 0-5 defeat.
To recall: On the last match day of the Kreisliga, Sittensen’s captain Thian Evers complained that a Horstedt teammate had repeatedly insulted him as a “kleinen Schwuli.” When he attempted to confront the opposing player, he was taunted as a “Schwuchtel” (TheColu.mn reported). The referee wanted nothing to do with it. Sittensen then decided to leave the field. Sportingly, the game had no impact on the league standings.
The sports tribunal explained that, according to NFV regulations, only the referee can suspend a match. “According to Paragraph 3, a team is not entitled to end a game without the referee’s consent,” the verdict states. And further: “In the present case, the VfL Sittensen team undoubtedly terminated the game without the referee’s consent.” The sports tribunal did not address the homophobic insults in its ruling, but instead claimed that, according to the club, there were “mutual insults” on both sides.
SV Horstedt went on the counterattack — and indirectly confirmed insulting remarks
The background: SV Horstedt’s team went on the counterattack following the homophobia allegations, according to kreiszeitung.de, and claimed that players from Sittensen had racially abused them. “Our players were repeatedly racially insulted and treated disrespectfully,” Horstedt said in response to Sittensen’s accusations.
Subsequently, the village club indirectly acknowledged on social media that insulting remarks had come from their side: “At the same time, is it expected that the opposing side stays calm and shows no reaction?”
Further, Horstedt directed at Sittensen: “If you want to take a stand against homophobia, that is fundamentally right and important. Then you should also address the issue of racism. It seems contradictory to advocate tolerance while allowing or ignoring racist insults on the field.”
Sittensen: “We would have appreciated a self-critical review of these incidents by SV Horstedt”
The VfL Sittensen, which describes its site on its website as a “Place of Diversity,” rejected any racist insults attributed to its players and framed this as a distraction tactic. The club stated: “Our players actively strive for a respectful and non-discriminatory togetherness. We would have appreciated a self-critical review of these incidents by SV Horstedt.”
Amid ongoing queer-phobic incidents in amateur football over the past years, such cases have repeatedly surfaced: Last year, for instance, a steward at the Baden-Württemberg club Türkspor Neckarsulm prohibited a visiting fan from bringing a rainbow flag into the stadium (TheColu.mn reported). Previously, a player from Dülkener FC’s second team in North Rhine-Westphalia produced T-shirts that provoked opposing teams with homophobic slogans — TSV Boisheim was dubbed “TSV Gay Boys-Heim” (TheColu.mn reported).
