this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Bayer Leverkusen is seen in Germany as a plastic club by a lot of fans, mostly because they have distanced themselves from their working class roots. They have a family friendly atmosphere and stadium. As a result a part of the ultra fanbase is trying to distance themselves from that clean image by being edgy and coming up with shocking statements.
They have a cult mascot, "der Zitronenmann", they use as a "spokesperson to" say controversial shit trying to get attention and stay relevant. They have provoked and picked fights with rivals as well, mainly Bremen and Koln.
This is not the reason though. Leverkusen is s smallish city, right next to Colone and they allways had a limited draw and were a "smaller club", that never had any major success and whose biggest accomplishment it was to win a match here and there against 1.FC Köln.
When Leverkusen rached the 1st division, in the 80s, FC && Gladbach were two of the biggest clubs in the country and scraped up the fans of the region, pretty much all the Leverkusen fans I know are from the city. From what I know and thats not really, really deep Leverkusen upped their investment, after they survived the fist few years in the league, Bayer invested 2 million deutsche Mark into new players, wich was a lot back then and established themselves as one of the better/top third teams in the league. Fans of other teams then slowly grew to dislike the club, that only had an attendence of around 10k, in a time, where most of the cash clubs made came from selling tickets, being bankrolled by a company, it then became a lot worse, when they were contending in the late 90s, early 2000s.
"We're not plastic, we're homophobic you see ;)"
Leverkusen are known for their homophobia, Gladbach for attracting Nazis, and we’re just here playing shit football.
I thought RB Leipzig was the only plastic club
No Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim, Leipzig and Leverkusen are the 4 plastic clubs.
I am not German so maybe I am missing something but I can’t really see the equivalence between Wolfsburg and Leverkusen against Hoffenheim and Leipzig. The former were initiated as clubs for the workers of the companies about 100 years ago, the latter two were bought by SAP and RB, respectively. I don’t think it makes sense to see Wolfsburg and Leverkusen in the same light given that their history is deeply intertwined with the corporations that own them, the people of those corporations and the cities they are in.
It’s absolutely normal to me that Wolfsburg and Bayer are owned by their respective Groups, even with the German rule of ownership.
Edit: obviously this ultra message from OP is horrendous and i’m not defending it all btw
in general the two broad categories of german clubs are "tradtionsclub"(tradition club) and "Kommerzclub" (commercial club, the plastics).
we do make further distinctions within that second category (Leipzig is seen as by far the worst, then hoffenheim and then wolfsburg and leverkusen) but what they all share is that they are controlled privately and undermine 50+1, so they are grouped together as plastic
I see, that's interesting. Thanks for the cultural context, makes sense.
They still have a big financial advantage for not being owned by the fans but by Bayer AG a ethicly dubious company at the least. Fans just don't like that, they take away a spot in the bundesliga from Fan-Owned Clubs, they take away International campaings from Clubs who would actually fill their stadium in these international games, who could actually use the money. All 4 clubs make the leage worse.
We funnel all of our profits back to Bayer and can’t nearly generate as much sponsoring revenue in parts due to our close association with another company.
The sponsorship is obviously a net positive for the club but there are drawbacks.
I see what you're saying, but intuitively it strikes me as a form of recency bias. One has a hundred-odd years of history, the other doesn't.
No youre not missing anything, youre spot on. They are in no way comparable. Both wolfburg and leverkusen are simply clubs situated in a city that is heavily influenced by a single company and naturally created football and other sports clubs. As you said, they are just worker clubs that have existed for a long time. In comparison redbull is a new brand that isnt even german.
There absolutely is a big difference between the two and people who call wolfburg or leverkusen plastic clubs are just clueless haters.
Just want to show my flair here to confirm your answer. It's embarrassing as fuck.
and what exactly is controversial in that statement?
of course lol
Every right-wing ultras group hates those clubs. Respectively, they're seen as the "woke club" and "gay club" by the far-right ultras.
Köln is actually due to the proximity. Bremen however doesn’t make any sense whatsoever, their fans can’t really be generalised as leaning towards any political affiliation.
Not sure what your source is but Bremen Ultras are very, very left leaning.
The club itself is also a bit more left leaning just look at the AFD statements.
In 2007 there was an attack on the antirascist Ultra Group Racaille by far right Hooligans at a party inside the stadiums east curve hall. Back at that time most fans were like you said trying to be unpolitical and to avoid any conflicts but there was also the first root of leftist fan groups and anti-rascist, anti-homophobic etc. fan groups coming up.
This attack lead to a change in our fan scene but since then the majority of our ultra scene has been very far left leaning and the Hooligan Groups have been driven out of the stadium.
Of course there is no generalisation of normal fans. I do know someone with very right wing views whos St. Pauli fan but in general our fan scene right now and especially the ultras are left leaning.
Damn, I live in Germany and consume a lot of football and adjacent content, but I’ve never heard of that. Might just be down to me not actively seeking news on Werder though.
In Glasgow we would call this group a bunch of VL’s
Cringe
Where are the shocking statements?
No, they are seen as bad for the Bundesliga because they undermine 50+1 by being a works team for Bayer.
The Team existed as Bayer Leverkusen 100 years before 50+1 was a thing.
So what? It's still a special exemption from the law, being grandfathered in doesn't change that. "Technically, it's legal" won't win you any sympathy points.
This.
And? It doesn’t matter how they were founded 100 years ago. Nowadays they are part of the Bayer AG and are one of three (soon to be two) clubs who are exempt from the 50+1 rule.
Which one is the third club? As far as I know, it's only Leverkusen and RB
RB is not legally exempt from the rule, they just get around it.
Hoffenheim, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg.
RB is just shady. They are no works team. They are RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V., e.V. meaning "eigetragener Verein" - registered association. A "normal" club on paper.
Leverkusen, Wolfsburg and Hoffenheim. RB is not exempt from 50+1. They found a workaround
That makes no sense. The reason why they are exempt from the rule is because the club literally has the roots in the company that founded it ages ago. It absolutely does matter when and how they were founded. Otherwise they wouldnt be exempt.
No reason for Bayer to take over the club then?
They didnt take over the club.
The clubs history begins in February 1903 when 170 workers of Bayer signed a letter to the head of the company asking to found a company athletics team. In July 1904 they officially created Turn- und Spielverein 1904 der Farbenfabrik vormals Friedrich Bayer Co. Leverkusen.
Bayer owned the club from the very beginning and half a century before people even thought you could make money off of professional football. There is nothing plastic about that, just a traditional workers team with deep bonds to its "mother" Bayer. The first time they wore the iconic Bayer Cross on their jerseys was in 1936.
Big divorced Dad energy
Mostly Single mom energy
I take it you are a divorced dad with that reflection.
two sides of the same coin m8
Yeah but divorced dad energy is not that dangerous as single mom
Bundesliga US twitter account energy
Straight to the gulag
LOL everybody in Bremen laughs about that every season, Werder is NOT A RIVAL of Leverkusen, it's just that their ultras try desperately to start a quarrel with the mainly leftist leaning ultra groups with tame provocations like this one.
Leverkusen sees Bremen as rivals, rivalries arent necessarily a two way street. That is why they tried to start shit though, to make it more heated and serious. When they did it with Koln they got chased around the city. Their Ultras are a bunch of useless cunts, they also caused problems in Portugal. Not by fighting with opposing fans, but by harassing locals and businesses.
Hertha Fans try the same with us in Schalke and other Schalke Fans are always super confused because nobody cares about Hertha Berlin.
Setting aside the fact that I find club friendships and rivalries in general super random and mostly ridiculous, this one has some history. Old Hertha fans remember Schalke using lawyer power to strip Hertha of a crushing 3:0 win in the 71/72 DFB Pokal, after which Schalke went on to win the Pokal that season.
It’s fascinating how we don’t care at all about that story whereas Hertha sees us as their biggest rival or whatever