Is the man who saved the bankruptcy club destroying it? This is the tragic question posed today many Racing supporters. Marc Keller, the icon, the builder, has become the target of those who have so much adored it. The reason? The Emanuel Emegha affair, this captain who posed with the Chelsea jersey when the season had just started. An act experienced as a betrayal, the symbol of a club which has become a simple “speculative reserve” at the service of its American owners.
Sanctions of incredible severity
The response of the ultras, with a scathing banner, sparked a chain reaction of unprecedented violence. Far from calming the game, Marc Keller released heavy artillery. Historical sanctions against the four main groups of supporters: access to premises under escort, prior control of all tifos, return of stadiers in the Kop … unheard of in French football. It is a declaration of war, a point of no return.
This radical decision is all the more disturbing since it comes just ten days after the dissolution by the government of the neonazi group “Strasbourg Offender”. By putting in the same bag of historical ultras and hooligans, the management made an error of appreciation which could cost it very dear. She chose confrontation, where dialogue was still possible.
Strasbourg: How Marc Keller is destroying his own heritage
Torn Strasbourg, an inheritance in danger
The result is a club cut in half. On the one hand, a leadership that defends an undeniable economic model and sporting success. On the other, supporters who fight for the identity and soul of their club. In the middle, a trainer and players taken hostage, and a captain “devastated” to have become the scapegoat of a conflict that exceeds him.
What is played out in Strasbourg is a case of school of the drifts of modern football. It is the fight between tradition and business, between passion and finance. And in this civil war, there will be no winner. Only losers. And the biggest loser could well be the heritage of Marc Keller himself, crumbling under the weight of decisions which seem to completely disconnect from those who make the real wealth of the club: his supporters.
