Around 13,000 cutouts stuffed the stands on Saturday as Borussia Mönchengladbach hosted Bayer Leverkusen in a Bundesliga sport which might assist resolve Champions League qualification.
Gladbach followers took footage at house in a shirt or scarf and paid 19 euros ($20.70) to be become one of many “Pappkameraden” or “cardboard companions.” Season-ticket holders have their cutout positioned of their normal spot, although some fan teams denounced the thought.
“It’s higher to play in entrance of dolls than nothing in any respect,” Leverkusen coach Peter Bosz stated earlier than the sport.
It was Gladbach’s first at house for the reason that Bundesliga restarted with out spectators amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The cutouts did not do Gladbach a lot good on Saturday. Leverkusen gained 3-1 to overhaul Gladbach for third within the desk, as Gladbach missed good possibilities to attain late on.
“Despite that it still looks really super,” Gladbach proper again Stefan Lainer stated. “It creates a certain atmosphere.”
Coach Marco Rose and a few of his gamers have been additionally within the stands in two-dimensional kind, together with greats of the membership’s previous. They embody Günter Netzer, who gained the West German title with Gladbach in 1970 and 1971 and the World Cup in 1974. There’s even an away finish with footage of supporters from Leverkusen and different golf equipment. Gladbach stated it was a nonprofit initiative with proceeds going to charity.
Gladbach’s kind this season has echoed its golden age from the 1970s. The membership led the desk early within the season and continues to be preventing for a Champions League spot.
Not the entire real-life followers like their cutout counterparts. Some teams oppose persevering with the season with out spectators and really feel the cutouts legitimize that.
“Football without fans is nothing,” learn a big banner positioned at one finish of the stadium on Saturday.
“For Borussia, against ghost games,” learn one other.
“The bleak backdrop of empty stadiums is exactly what these games represent and deserve,” the Sottocultura group of Gladbach followers stated in a press release. “We consider the initiative with the cardboard figures to be counterproductive. We understand the well-meaning, charitable idea behind it, but we consider the signal to be the wrong one.”
Gladbach is not the primary membership to attempt changing followers with doppelgangers throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Before the Bundesliga restarted, Belarus was the one nation in Europe enjoying league video games. Champion membership Dynamo Brest printed off photographs despatched by supporters overseas and hooked up them to buy mannequins sporting a motley number of previous shirts.
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