Ex Arsenal keeper sacked over racist message

Hertha Berlin in on the brink of relegation from Bundesliga, and will fight to stay up probably until the last game of the season. After Lars Windhorst bought the club and invested a staggering amount of almost 380 million euros, it is unbelievable that they are still relegation strugglers. And to make things worse, members of his staff are making the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

After sacking goalkeeping coach Zsolt Petry for anti-gay and xenophobic comments in April, they have now relieved former Arsenal keeper Jens Lehmann off his duties over racist message. Former Gunners keeper who player 200 games for Arsenal and was a member of the ‘Invincibles’ Arsenal squad, playing every match in their unbeaten Premier League title-winning season in 2003-04 got sacked from his duty as a member of the Bundesliga club's supervisory board.

Hertha Berlin sack goalkeeping coach over homophobic, immigration comments

Lehmann accidentally sent ex-professional Dennis Aogo a WhatsApp message in which he described the dark-skinned ex-national player as a quota black: “Is Dennis actually your Quotenschwarzer (token black guy)?” Aogo then posted a screenshot of the message on his Instagram story, captioning it: “Wow, are you serious? This message was probably not meant for me.”

An avalanche of comments followed and the club owner reacted quickly by terminating Lehmann’s contract. Ex Gunner claimed he was using Quote (quota) in reference to TV ratings, which is also Quote in German.

“I've already phoned Dennis and asked his forgiveness if my statement came across as disrespectful. It wasn't meant that way at all, it was positive. Because he is competent as a Sky expert and very strong in his demeanor. And that's why the quota has increased. That's what I wanted to say, but I was unhappy about it. Since the WhatsApp went out from my cell phone, I take responsibility for it. It was a private message“ said Lehmann to Bild, leaving the open question to whom he actually wanted to send the message.

Lehmann also apologized for his message on Twitter:

“In a private message from my cell phone to Dennis Aogo, an impression was created for which I apologized in conversation with Dennis. As a former national player he is very knowledgeable and has a great presence and brings a quota to Sky".

Needles to say, the fans didn’t believed his words, but former team mates also. Karsten Baumann played with Lehmann at Borussia in 1999/2000, and he replied shortly to his Twitter apology: "You were a complete idiot back then!"

Hertha club President Werner Gegenbauer also made a clear statement regarding Lehmann.

“Such statements in no way correspond to the values ​​for which Hertha BSC stands and is actively committed. We distance ourselves from any form of racism and welcome the move by TENNOR Holding".

Sky Sport also hosted Lehmann as a guest commentator in their shows, but that will clearly change now.

„We are very disappointed. "We at Sky condemn all forms of racism and give racism no space or platform" said Sports director Charly Classen.