EM 2021: ZDF reacts aggressively to sexual incitement against commentators

Claudia Neumann and Ariane Hengst commented on the Belgium-Russia match at EM 2021. Some viewers don’t like it at all.

FRANKFURT – The EM 2021 Championships are only a few days old, so the network has in principle almost everything through: The first major scare in the dramatic scenes of the match between Denmark and Finland on Saturday (June 12, 2021) when player Christian Eriksen collapsed unconscious , then a dirty storm against ZDF because the match between Belgium and Russia is being commented on by two women. So the madness is getting faster.

Because when it became known that Christian Eriksen was stable and could be taken to a hospital in Copenhagen, some fans’ anger erupted at the team of commentators Claudia Neumann and Ariane Hengst at the Belgium-Russia match on Twitter. Partial sexual agitation against the two women did not go unnoticed, as the ZDF showed a direct reaction to the comments.

Sexual comments against ZDF commentators at EM 2021

“Why doesn’t this torment stop? Now there are already two women hanging. It really is unbearable and there is no country in the world where two women would comment on a European Championship match. Why is no one getting us out of it?” wrote a user on Twitter. ZDF immediately responded: “Statistically speaking, women make up about 50 percent of the world’s population. The fact that two of them comment on a soccer match together shouldn’t surprise people with basic math skills.”

Another Twitter user wrote: Why are two women hanging? Why? ZDF asks the right counter-question: ‘Why not? Claudia Neumann is the only woman on the commenter list: For the 2021 European Championship, world soccer champion Ariane Hengst plays her co-commentator. Even this Twitter user doesn’t like the fact that two women are ‘writing’ a text message to him: ‘Generations of men have been eyeing to football because they are not written by a woman. But the quota is more important.” The ZDF shows a reaction here as well: “So this is the sexism on the Internet that is always being warned,” the post states.

ZDF reacts to incitement against commentators in EM 2021

There are a lot of comments like the ones above on Twitter. Constructive criticism? In many cases there is no evidence. Belgium and Russia fought on the field for their first win at EM 2021 and the ZDF social media division against hateful and anti-women comments on the net.

ZDF also has a good answer for the user questioning Claudia Neumann’s professionalism. The user poses his own reasoning: “What qualifies an expert for the job? She has never played men’s football before. So what makes her an expert in men’s football? Then I am practically just as qualified as them. That is, I have never played men’s football”, the user writes. ZDF then provides a logical answer as to why Claudia Neumann would do well for the job in EM 2021: “Claudia Neumann has learned TV journalism from the bottom up, and has been reporting on football in the current sports studio and in the Champions League for many years – broadcast. In addition to Her professionalism, she has a great deal of experience.”

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In short, it was a brilliant offensive performance by ZDF’s social media department to stay in the football discourse. In the end, the public broadcaster wins the game against the haters and misogynists on the network. (msb)