“We apologize sincerely”: BVB boss defends “party bus” after Derby

Monday, February 22, 2021

“Sincerely apologize”
BVB boss defends “party bus” after Derby

 The  mood after the derby victory is exuberant, the fans receive the team bus euphorically.  The  pictures from Dortmund show the party atmosphere at BVB. But in times of pandemics that is too much, admits BVB managing director Watzke. At the same time he defends his players.
Dortmund’s managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke has defended the cheers of the BVB players after the derby victory in the Bundesliga against FC Schalke 04. “Just imagine, the team is going home after the triumph, the fans are cheering outside and our players are sitting like wax figures without facial expressions and gestures inside the bus. It can’t be that either,” the 61-year-old said Sport1. At the same time he added: “Nevertheless we all have to obey the rules!”

In front of the Dortmund Bundesliga club’s training grounds, there was a gathering of larger fan groups on Saturday evening after the clear 4-0 win in the Gelsenkirchen Arena – and the probably last derby due to the almost unavoidable Schalke relegation. After the jubilee celebrations, BVB admitted violations of the corona rules.

 The  players also celebrated on the bus without masks and filmed it “in exuberance,” as the club announced. A video that was temporarily published on Mahmoud Dahoud’s account on Instagram showed Marco Reus, Erling Haaland, Emre Can & Co. cheering fans behind the windshield, who greeted them with pyrotechnics.

 The  players sang BVB songs and chanted “Derby winner”.

 The  more than ten-minute video was deleted on Sunday night, but can still be found on social media.

“But it is important, and I would like to emphasize this again at this point, that no player got off the bus and celebrated with the fans,” Watzke now emphasized at Sport1. BVB will accept a penalty from the German Football League and learn its lessons from the case, said Watzke: “We will work through the case and work with the police and everyone involved to ensure that something like this does not happen again. We are Borussia Dortmund has a great responsibility. We sincerely apologize for it. “