GERMANS ARE CRAZY TO HOUND HOPP THE HERO
DIEtMAr HoPP is a software billionaire who in 2000 began financially supporting his favourite team, Hoffenheim. they were in verbandsliga nordbaden at the time, which is the sixth tier of German football. Actually, that’s stretching it. there are 20 leagues separating the regional Baden league from the Bundesliga, although a team only needs to win promotion through five of them. Hopp had been on Hoffenheim’s books as a teenager and ploughed his money into a grown man’s fantasy. Hoffenheim rose steadily, finally reaching a professional league in 2007 and the Bundesliga the year after. they have remained there since, and qualified for the Europa League and Champions League. Hopp also gave a break to two of Europe’s brightest young coaches: ralf rangnick and Julian nagelsmann. over here he would be a hero, a Jack Walker figure making dreams come true. In Germany, he is despised. on saturday, Bayern Munich fans visiting Hoffenheim unfurled a banner calling him ‘son of a whore’ and their match was temporarily suspended. When the players returned they spent the last 15 minutes passing the ball between themselves, like a warm-up, in protest. It did not effect the outcome, as Munich were leading 6-0 at the time. Yet that’s still not enough for some. In Germany, owner investment is seen as somehow illegitimate. Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Moenchengladbach supporters have both produced banners putting Hopp in rifle crosshairs. red Bull Leipzig are equally hated, for being born of new money. Wolfsburg, too. And if Germany’s traditionally run and funded clubs had found a way to challenge Bayern Munich’s supremacy in recent years it might make sense. Yet Munich are now three points clear and closing in on their eighth straight Bundesliga title. It is almost as if the rest of German football has been brainwashed into believing this is how it has to be. Hoffenheim were a village football team who now draw average crowds of over 26,000 — more than Crystal Palace — and holds their own in one of Europe’s biggest leagues. Hopp is a great man, whose love of football and his home town should be lauded. Instead, he is insulted and made a pariah. that’s why German football is such a hard sell beyond its borders. Who wants to watch a league in which ambition and competition are dirty words?