Watzke received death threats after Leipzig match

Borussia Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke was sent death threats after his side beat RB Leipzig 1-0 in a bad-tempered Bundesliga clash on February 4.

After Dortmund fans held up offensive banners at the match, the club was fined €100,000 and ordered to close their south stand, nicknamed the ‘Yellow Wall’, for Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Wolfsburg.

Watzke said he and his family have been threatened by Leipzig supporters following the match, which saw Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang score the only goal to claim all three points.

“If I would publish everything that I have received in the last 14 days,” Watzke said. “Among other things, threatening letters that went from, ‘We’ll hang you up’ to ‘When you go through east Germany you will not make it even to Saxony’.

“I personally can live with it, I’ve always been able to deal with it, but it’s very painful for my family as well.”

Watzke previously claimed RB Leipzig was set up “to sell cans of soda” but the Dortmund chief executive vehemently denied he provoked supporters into the disorder at Signal Iduna Park, which was condemned by both clubs.

“In Germany it is always very important that someone says ‘I confess guilt’,” Watzke said. “But honestly, I do not confess to guilt. 

“And believe me, I have reflected [on] my statements very intensively and critically. I still do not recognise anything that would have contributed to violence.

“I hate violence. I personally did not attack or discredit anybody from Leipzig. But on the contrary, I have always been a passionate democrat who argues with words for his conviction, with words that do not offend or discriminate.”

RB Leipzig are second in the Bundesliga table, a place above Dortmund but trailing leaders and defending champions Bayern Munich by eight points.