Max Eberl’s planned appearance on the ZDF sports studio has been canceled. The Leipzig managing director was originally scheduled to appear on Thursday, but Eberl wanted to direct the interview towards future topics and felt that focusing on past hostilities would prolong the topic unnecessarily.
ZDF, however, wanted to devote a larger block of topics to the subject of hostilities against Eberl, particularly in light of the recent hate posters displayed by Gladbach fans during their Leipzig game last weekend. The sports studio editors did not want to comply with Eberl’s request to largely exclude certain topics related to “Causa Gladbach,” so Eberl’s appearance was ultimately canceled.
In a statement to BILD, Eberl explained that he wanted to move on from the issues of the past few weeks and look towards the future. He acknowledged that emotions have run high on both sides, but stated that he did not want to actively heat up the discussions.
ZDF has now found a replacement for Eberl in the form of Schalke professional Marius Bülter, who will appear on the sports studio on Saturday evening. While it remains to be seen if the topic of hostilities against Eberl will still be covered, ZDF has made clear that they fully understand Eberl’s perspective on the matter.
