Bremen hope to make statement on and off the field

The Bre­men Fans have some­thing cre­ative planned for tonight

Werder Bre­men Fans are plan­ning the biggest Choreo Show ever for the UEFA Cup game against AC Milan. The mil­lions in front of the TV and the sold out Weser­sta­dium crowd will get the oppor­tu­nity to see an impres­sive dis­play against Racism.

A huge por­tion of the show will be done with the hard work of the Antidiskriminierungs-AG (Antidis­crim­i­na­tion AG) of the Werder-Fans. The Antidiskriminierungs-AG was founded in March 2008 by Werder-Fans and the Fan­pro­jekt Bre­men and has worked since then to edu­cate about Right Wing extrem­ism, Racism, Anti Semi­tism, Sex­ism and Homo­pho­bia in Soc­cer. The goal of the group is to help end dis­crim­i­na­tion amongst the fans and to end Rightwing influ­ence among some of the Fan Scene.

Work­ing Night and Day

“The Show will cover the entire Ostkurve from the top to the bot­tom. Approx­i­mately 20 peo­ple have worked on this every day and some­times through the night”, said Thomas Hafke from the Bre­mer Fan­pro­jekt.
The exact motifs of the Show will remain a sur­prise until game time. “Of course we thought about the tim­ing: We have an inter­na­tional match and many for­eign Fans are vis­it­ing us, so the motto will have an inter­na­tional theme” said Hafke.

Trans­la­tors for Ital­ian Fans

Besides the Choreo show the Bre­mer Fan­pro­jekt has also planned to host more events. The AC Milan fans will be invited to a German-Italian Fan Fest in the Ostkur­ven­saal (one of the meet­ing halls in the Sta­dium) with Music, cold and warm drinks, Snacks and Ital­ian Food.

To assist the com­mu­ni­ca­tion among the Fans the Fan­pro­jekt Bre­men will again use trans­la­tors who are going to assist the Ital­ian Fans at the gates as well. Dur­ing the game they will be avail­able to answer any ques­tions from the Tifosi in the vis­i­tor area of the Weser-Stadium. The invi­ta­tion to the fans of AC Milan has the motto “Soc­cer fans against Racism”.

Here is the invi­ta­tion that was sent to the Ital­ian Fans:

TIFOSI CONTRO IL RAZZISMO

Cari tifosi del AC Milan!

Il “Progetto-Tifosi Brema” v’invita cor­dial­mente a un fes­tino
con tifosi tedeschi nella “sala curva est” (OstKur­ven­Saal) del
Weser Stadio.

Con bib­ite fres­che, ottima cucina ital­iana e buona musica,
avete la pos­si­bilita di conoscere i tifosi del Werder Brema.
La “sala curva est” (OstKur­ven­Saal) è aperta per voi e per i
tifosi del Werder dalle dici­asette e trenta del pomeriggio.

Siete ben­venuti! Vi auguri­amo buon viag­gio e una piacev­ole
ser­ata. Vi salu­ti­amo cor­dial­mente. Il “Progetto-Tifosi Brema”

Team sup­ports the Antidiskriminierungs-AG

Among the biggest sup­port­ers of the work of the Antidiskriminierungs-AG is the Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer of SV Werder Klaus-Dieter Fis­cher. “We are very happy that Mr. Fis­cher sup­ports the project one hun­dred per­cent, and the coop­er­a­tion of the entire club is enor­mous”, said Hafke, and added that all the Play­ers sup­port the effort as well.

The Antidiskriminierungs-AG already pro­duced T-Shirts with the slo­gan “Weser-Stadion oder sonst wo — Kein Platz für Nazis!” (Weser Sta­dium or any­where else – No place for Nazis!). All of the play­ers from the Bundesliga-Team have a Shirt and have worn them already. Team Cap­tain Frank Bau­mann said: “We sup­port this type of effort wher­ever we can. When the team was asked about Photo shoots we had more vol­un­teers from the team than for any other event.”

What do you think about sto­ries like this? Would you like more sto­ries on what the Fans are doing? We have great cov­er­age on the matches and the play­ers but many times we over­look those that bring the pas­sion to the matches. Let me know your thoughts.