All about the next opponent: interview with journalist Felix Tamsut

VfB Stutt­gart are hea­ding into their last Euro­pean match of the year and can take a big step toward the knock­out round with a win. Their upco­ming oppo­nent is Mac­ca­bi Tel Aviv, who curr­ent­ly sit in second-to-last place. Jour­na­list Felix Tam­sut tells us how things are going at MTA.

With the Red Stri­pe: What’s your per­so­nal stance toward Mac­ca­bi Tel Aviv? Are you a fan?

Felix: I don’t have any per­so­nal or emo­tio­nal con­nec­tion to the club. I do have many fri­ends who sup­port MTA’s archri­vals, Hap­oel Tel Aviv and Mac­ca­bi Hai­fa, but I mys­elf don’t sup­port any Israe­li club, even though I grew up in Isra­el.

How is Mac­ca­bi Tel Aviv’s sea­son going, both inter­na­tio­nal­ly and dome­sti­cal­ly?

Mixed. Mac­ca­bi Tel Aviv, the Israe­li cham­pi­on, is still in the title race and curr­ent­ly sits in third place, five points behind league lea­ders Hap­oel Beer She­va. On the other hand, the­re are a num­ber of pro­blems at the moment. On the pitch, the team doesn’t look good, and many fans belie­ve Ser­bi­an coach Zar­ko Laze­tic is to bla­me. Things escala­ted to the point whe­re fla­res were fired toward his apart­ment, lea­ding him to want to lea­ve the club and the coun­try. As a result, the club issued seve­ral sta­di­um bans against mem­bers of MTA’s only ultra group, the Mac­ca­bi Fana­tics. In addi­ti­on, the­re are inves­ti­ga­ti­ons in the Net­her­lands against Fana­tics mem­bers becau­se of the inci­dents in Ams­ter­dam, and the Fana­tics have stron­gly cri­ti­ci­zed the club and the Israe­li poli­ce becau­se of this. So the­re is a lot of unrest at the club right now.

The fans of Tel Aviv have a bad repu­ta­ti­on and are con­side­red vio­lent. How do you assess that?

As always, some peo­p­le want to paint a black-and-white pic­tu­re when it comes to foot­ball fans. Mac­ca­bi Tel Aviv is per­haps the most wide­ly sup­port­ed club in Isra­el. It has fans from all cor­ners of Israe­li socie­ty, and the­se peo­p­le are foot­ball fans like any others. At the same time, you also have to take the Mac­ca­bi Fana­tics into account. They are a far-right, vio­lence-pro­ne ultra group that tra­vels ever­y­whe­re with the team. They exist too. But you have to see this in the con­text of the broa­der fan cul­tu­re in Euro­pe and not as a stan­da­lo­ne issue. In other words: the­re are far more noto­rious, far more vio­lent ultra groups in foot­ball, and they’ve also been in Ger­ma­ny in recent years sup­port­ing their respec­ti­ve clubs. Mac­ca­bi Tel Aviv fans are not Red Star Bel­gra­de or Olym­pia­kos, and anyo­ne clai­ming other­wi­se is sim­ply wrong.

VfB have streng­the­ned their secu­ri­ty mea­su­res and have ban­ned the car­ry­ing and dis­play­ing of flags, ban­ners, signs, and fan items of any kind out­side of the Cannstat­ter Kur­ve and the away sec­tor, except for fan shirts, scar­ves, and hats. What do you think about that?

I always think mea­su­res that rest­rict foot­ball fans’ freedom—whether it con­cerns their crea­ti­vi­ty or free­dom of movement—deserve cri­ti­cism. But in this case the­re is a cer­tain con­text, name­ly that cer­tain groups want to use the match for their own pur­po­ses. The Midd­le East con­flict has not­hing to do with VfB Stutt­gart, its fan sce­ne, or its club iden­ti­ty. For exam­p­le, it’s not com­mon to see state­ments or posi­ti­ons on this topic in the Cannstat­ter Kur­ve. That’s why I find the club’s approach—although I view it critically—understandable, and I also think the way many ultra groups from the Cannstat­ter Kur­ve, espe­ci­al­ly CC97, have hand­led the situa­ti­on is very nuan­ced and well-infor­med. It’s also good that the club stay­ed in cont­act with the acti­ve fan sce­ne so that a free and colorful Kur­ve would still be pos­si­ble. From a fan per­spec­ti­ve, though, one must stay alert to ensu­re this doesn’t set a pre­ce­dent.

Let’s talk about the sport­ing side. Who is Maccabi’s best play­er? Which play­ers does VfB need to watch out for?

One play­er to keep an eye on is Dor Peretz. The mid­fiel­der is at the heart of MTA’s play­ing style and is also the club’s top scorer in the league. Mac­ca­bi Tel Aviv are shaky at the goal­kee­per posi­ti­on at the moment, and in attack they’ll be wit­hout stri­ker Ion Nico­laes­cu, who­se inju­ry has ended his sea­son.

Your pre­dic­tion for the match?

My pre­dic­tion: a clear win for VfB, 3–0.

Pic­tu­re: © Chris­ti­an Fischer/Bongarts/Getty Images