German side Mainz 05 will resist calls from their own fans to cancel an upcoming friendly with Newcastle United in Austria. The Bundesliga club have been bombarded with messages in recent days as supporters took issue with the Magpies' Saudi ownership.
Mainz fans released a statement earlier this week, urging their side to 'take a stand' by cancelling the July 18th clash. However, those wishes have been rejected on Tuesday and the friendly will go ahead later this month.
"A friendly against a big English club is first of all a really good test for us. It’s also important for our team’s pre-season preparations," said Mainz chairman Stefan Hofmann. "After weighing up our options and not having an appropriate alternative opponent of this standard available, we agreed to play this game.
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“We didn’t expect the reaction we got from some fans. We respect them and regret that these concerns have arisen because it’s our responsibility to start the new season as one big unit together with our fans.”
Mainz fans believe playing Newcastle 'actively offers the Saudi regime a stage and thus indirectly recognises it politically'. Fan group 'Supporters Mainz E.V' sent an open letter to the German side earlier this week explaining their stance.
"The motive for this was probably less the enthusiasm for football or the identification with the club Newcastle United than the so-called 'sportwashing' - the attempt to polish the image of Saudi Arabia by entering international football," it read. "We recall that Saudi Arabia is not only an absolute monarchy in which democratic participation of its citizens has no place, but a country in which fundamental human rights are systematically disregarded.
"Suppression of freedom of expression and religion, persecution of homosexuals, oppression of women, use of caning and the death penalty are part of the laws there. Newcastle United is not just a football club, but a vehicle for asserting the interests of a regime that tramples on human rights and whose policies are diametrically opposed to the value and mission statement of Mainz 05.
"At a time when authoritarian states, large corporations or billionaires are taking over international football in order to assert their interests, it is no longer possible to separate football and politics. With the decision to play a friendly against Newcastle United, Mainz 05 is sending a signal, and not a good one at that. This game sends out the signal that the values of the mission statement are not binding when it comes to choosing opponents for friendly or friendlies go.
"With a game against Newcastle United, Mainz also actively offers the Saudi regime a stage and thus indirectly recognises it politically. We call on Mainz 05: Take a stand! Read your mission statement! Cancel the game against Newcastle United!"
The Mainz clash is the second of Newcastle's two friendlies in Austria this month, with a game against 1860 Munich pencilled in three days before.
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