Germanistan : German football official blames AfD for rising violence in the sport

A sports official in Germany has blamed the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) for rising violence on the pitch, claiming that the party has normalized ‘social disinhibition’ in the society. 

Following several acts of violence in amateur football, Thorsten Schenk, the referee chairman of the district of Dieburg, blamed the Alternative for Germany (AfD) for contributing to an increase in social disinhibition within the society, which has led to more violence in the sport, German weekly newspaper Junge Freiheit reports.

“Just take the AfD. It says things that are completely unspeakable, and nobody punishes them for it. On the contrary, someone like Mr. Höcke gets for it almost 25 percent of the vote,” Schenk told Die Welt.

Schenk’s comments come on the heels of a historic victory for the AfD in Thuringian state elections, where it saw its share of the vote the more than double. The populist party is now more popular than Angela Merkel’s CDU. 

Much of the AfD’s success in the state of Thuringia has been attributed to Bjorn Höck, the party’s leader of the region.

Schenk’s words indirectly reference a match between the Hessian clubs FSV Münster and the TV Semd, where FSV player Hayri G. beat the referee unconscious on Sunday after being sent off. As a result of the brutal attack, the injured referee had to be airlifted to the hospital via a helicopter.
The injured referee and father of three told the German newspaper Bild that even three days after the attack, Hayri G. had still not apologized. 

Although there have been several violent attacks on referees in German amateur football games in recent months, those committing the violence are almost always foreigners.

Recently, the Berlin Football Federation canceled all matches in the Berlin-Liga, the highest football league in the German capital and the sixth tier of German football.

The matches were canceled after referees from the league announced they would be going on strike for the weekend due to rising violence against them. This season, 53 attacks have been reported.