Bayern Munich fined €77,000 for fan misconduct: a year of pyro in review

The Sports Tribunal of the DFB recently passed judgment on three Bundesliga clubs and one 2. Liga club for their unruly fans. The harshest sentence was handed down to Bayern Munich. The club was fined €77,000 for five separate incidents of “unsportsmanlike conduct” by their fans: ample pyrotechnics, smoke bombs, and one offensive banner.

Bayern fans brought fire and smoke almost everywhere they went this season. Let's review the episodes that caught the attention of the German Soccer Federation.

Bayern at Bayer Leverkusen, January 12, 2018

Bayern’s Rückrunde kicked off with a bang at this eventful away game in Leverkusen. At the beginning of the second half, Bayern fans in the away block threw rolls of toilet paper at the corner of the pitch, interrupting the game while they were moved to the sidelines. You can see the debris near the corner when Ribery celebrates his 2-0 goal with the fans:

That wasn't the only highlight of the game. It was at this game that James Rodriguez scored one of the most beautiful free kicks I have ever seen. Here’s a great look at James’s goal from the stands:

And a mouse invaded the pitch—in hindsight, foreshadowing the phenomenon that was Besiktas cat:

Oh, and remember this guy talking on his shoe phone?

That was one wacky game.

Bayern at SC Paderborn in the DFB-Pokal, February 6

Kingsley Coman was on fire in this 6-0 trouncing of little Paderborn, but the smoke came pouring in from the stands. Bayern fans set off smoke bombs, and Paderborn's fans also joined the party.

AFP Photo / Patrik Stollarz

Bayern vs Dortmund, March 31

This was the day Bayern utterly crushed Dortmund 6-0, leading many to question the sense of calling the matchup a Klassiker at all. But the fireworks remained down on the pitch this time. Bayern was fined in this instance for a banner that the Ultras unveiled:

Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images

The banner reads:

FAKT IST: DEUTSCHTÜMELEI UND RASSISMUS SIND SCHON MAL GESCHEITERT
FICK DICH, DOBRINDT, DU ALMAN!
It's a fact: German nationalism and racism have already failed once
Fuck you, Dobrindt, you Alman!

The banner targets Bavarian conservative politician Alexanader Dobrindt, who represents the community of Peißenberg, southwest of Munich, at the Bundestag. Dobrindt had recently stated that he believed Islam, in any form, did not belong to Germany. Bayern's famously left-wing Schickeria responded in kind. The insult Alman is particularly intriguing. As a fascinating article at Faszination Fankurve explains, it is actually a Turkish word for “German” that is used as an insult by young people with an immigrant background to insult one of their own who acts especially German.

Bayern at Hannover, April 21

The pyrotechnics were blazing at this away game as the season neared its end. The lead photo of this article was taken this day, as the Bayern fans lit up the away block. The smoke lingered over the stands for some time.

Photo by Odd Andersen / AFP

The DFB-Pokal final vs Eintracht Frankfurt, Berlin, May 19

The pyro at the DFB-Pokal final was the grandest of all. Bayern’s fans lit a multitude of flares, turning their block into a wall of fire:

Photo by Christof Stache / AFP

The smoke was overwhelming at times, obscuring the pitch from the television cameras.

Photo by Tobias Schwarz / AFP

Of course, that was hardly the end of incidents at Bayern’s matches. The club was also fined by UEFA for several pitch-invaders and yet another offensive banner when they hosted Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinals.

All that was worth €77,000—

What a liv an bomba yay, when the two sevens clash!

(Source: Kicker)