Bondvillan terrorism
April 21, 2017 7:57 AM   Subscribe

Two weeks ago, the Borussia Dortmund team bus was on route to their Quarter-final first leg Champions league match against AS Monaco, when it was attacked by a remotely detonated bomb. Theories were flowing: Islamic terrorists? Antifas displeased by the clubs' association with far-right fans? The same far-right fans displeased with the club's attempts to remove them from the Südtribüne over recent incidents? Leipzig hooligans trying a pay back for those incidents? The truth might be a lot stranger.

While there were no major injuries in the accident, a police officer was injured and Spanish defender Marc Bartra (days after finding the woman inside a yellow jersey in a sea of Schalke 04 shirts [fb link]) suffered cuts and broken bones on his left hand and arm from the blast. With a saturated calendar late in the season, UEFA postponed the game to the following day, with Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel accusing UEFA of insensitivity, with UEFA defending their decision was made in agreement with both clubs. With most fans being unable to return to southern France just to return less than 24 hours later, the city of Dortmund lent Monaco fans a couch and shared meals over the #bedforawayfans hashtag .

The investigation of the attack started promptly - on site, a letter was found linking to attack to radical Islamists, but the odd wording made experts suggest it was a fake, even if an Iraqi citizen connected to ISIS was arrested. Then, a letter was posted to Indymedia where an Antifa group claimed responsibility for the attack over the club not distancing themselves enough from right-wing fans. then, a third letter was mailed to a local newspaper claiming it was an "attack on multi-culturalism" (Dortmund, as many top clubs in europe, features over a dozen nationalities in their squad, from star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Gabon, Shinji Kagawa of Japan and up-and-coming US star Christian Pulisic, in a city that is seeing a rise of far-right activism). All were discarded as clumsy fakes, and the investigation was not pointing "neither in the direction of rightwing extremism or Islamism”.

Today, the saga might have ended in the most bizarre of ways - Sergej W, a "28-year-old German-Russian" was arrested for planting a bomb in the hopes the options he acquired on the German club stock would increase in value if his bomb killed a number of players. ARD (German public broadcasting service) had raised the issue of potencial speculation in the following day. Employees of the bank used in the transaction were suspecting this could be part of a money-laundering scheme, and forward this information to the police, who later discovered Sergej W booked a room in the same hotel as the team, refused a room that was not overlooking the street where the explosives were installed, and his calm in the chaotic aftermath of the blast.

As for the game, a shaken Dortmund side was beaten 2-3 at home, and in the second leg, Monaco repeated with a 3-1 win, advancing comfortably to the semi-finals where they will meet Juventus.
posted by lmfsilva (9 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
(just one thing that I accidentally deleted - according to the prosecutor, in March he booked a room in the hotel for both possible dates of the games - 9 to 13 and 16 to 20 because at the time of the reservation, it was not clear if Dortmund would play first at home, and on Tuesday or Wednesday)
posted by lmfsilva at 8:11 AM on April 21, 2017


Meanwhile in Australia, The Australian (Rupert Murdoch's hard-right national broadsheet, which bangs on about murderous Muslims and their Cultural-Marxist-latte-elite useful idiots) still reports this as Islamist terrorism.
posted by acb at 8:14 AM on April 21, 2017


I've got a special place in my heart for Borussia Dortmund and their fans since they happened to be in the Champions League final in London at that same time I was visiting. Their fans took over Trafalgar Square and the Westphalians were much, much more fun that Bavarians they were up against. As bad as this terrorist attack was ( and let's not deny this was terrorism no matter his motives), it could have been so much worse.
posted by thecjm at 8:57 AM on April 21, 2017


Is it wrong of me to hope these put options are allowed to stand? Not merely would Sergei W be facing criminal charges, he'd also be facing financial ruin.
posted by scruss at 12:02 PM on April 21, 2017


Is it wrong of me to hope these put options are allowed to stand? Not merely would Sergei W be facing criminal charges, he'd also be facing financial ruin.

Is that the right level to attack at? If they were allowed to stand, surely any proceeds would be seized as proceeds of crime.
posted by acb at 2:20 PM on April 21, 2017


The thing is, he'd only make money if the share price went down. Which it isn't. So he has to pay the full amount for his orders when they come due.
posted by scruss at 3:33 PM on April 21, 2017


The thing is, he'd only make money if the share price went down. Which it isn't. So he has to pay the full amount for his orders when they come due.

He bought the option. That means he has the right but not the obligation to sell. So he doesn't have to deliver anything.
posted by PMdixon at 10:07 PM on April 21, 2017


Stocks are down from a month ago, last I checked. We also have no idea what the sell price of the put was.
posted by molecicco at 10:19 PM on April 21, 2017


This is not helping with my feeling that the world is terrible. Poor BvB.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:17 AM on April 22, 2017


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