Charlottenburg, Berlin – Antisemitism scandal in Charlottenburg! The CFC Hertha 06 football club has again attracted attention with its highly anti-Jewish statements.
An ARD documentary shows the club’s chairman, Ergün Çakir, as he says: “My son will hate the Jews for the rest of his life, I know that 100 percent. There is no one to sit down and talk to, but they say from the start: ‘We are Jews, we have the right, we can do whatever we want’.”
As early as November, A-Juniors from Hertha 06 had made antisemitic comments, insulting players from the Jewish club TuS Makkabi at a football game. One gave a Hitler salute. Another shouted, “I’ll burn you and your dirty flag, you bastards, just like the Germans did to you.” It was Çakir’s son. The sports court decided: 1500 euros club penalty, three points deduction and two years football ban in Berlin for the two perpetrators.
Çakir thinks the verdict is wrong, anti-racism courses should have been given instead. “I don’t approve of what the boys did. I now explain to my son every day what’s going on,” he says.
BZ confronts Çakir with his antisemitic statements. He doesn’t distance himself, but affirms: “I meant that my son will hate the Jews because they won’t let him play football for two years.” The president of Maccabi, for example, does what he wants. Çakir: “I think he’s doing it because he’s imagining things, because he’s a Jew.”
The Berlin Football Association is now examining sanctions. Spokesman Janosch Franke: “The Berlin Football Association has taken the statements with great concern.”