As you may have seen, there cockle-warming scenes across German football at the weekend as fans from various clubs welcomed refugees to their country en masse.
Tensions are running high in Germany of late as the country continues to take in more and more desperate souls who have been displaced by the war in Syria, so it was heart-warming to see football fans take such a sympathetic and tolerant stance.
Indeed, several of the larger Bundesliga clubs have taken steps to further engage with the refugees, with Borussia Dortmund announcing yesterday that they are giving free tickets to 220 refugees for their upcoming Europa League tie against Norwegian side Odds Ballklubb – more than the total number of Syrians who have been taken in though the UK government’s official refugee relocation scheme, according to the Independent.
Today, Bayern Munich have followed suit, with the Bavarian giants announcing their plans to provide a €1million donation toward projects set up to support Syrian refugees arriving in Germany.
As well as the money, Bayern are also laying on training camps for refugees as well as subsided meals, football equipment, child first aid and even German classes for the needy people arriving in Munich specifically.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge told the official club site:
“Bayern sees it as our social responsibility to help the refugees, needy children, women and men, to help them and to accompany them in Germany.”
The club have also confirmed that before their next home game against Augsburg on 12th September, the Bayern players emerge from the tunnel holding the hand of a German child in one hand and the hand of a refugee child in the other to symbolise the integration of the two communities.
As we said earlier, cockle-warming and so wonderfully reassuring to see.