Hitzlsperger backs down as Stuttgart's young guns stand up on the pitch | Andy Brassell


The popular CEO cooled his rift with the president as VfB’s exciting side assembled by Sven Mislintat registered a first home win

It was a weekend for calm and reflection, a weekend in which, as the end of Holocaust Memorial week, Bundesliga clubs paid tribute to those persecuted for their sexuality and gender identity by the Nazis, with captains wearing rainbow-coloured armbands. VfB Stuttgart wore a specially produced shirt, the normally red central hoop on white replaced with a rainbow one.

In the bare stands at Cannstadt the club’s chief executive, Thomas Hitzlsperger, stood with the short and a rainbow club scarf on, the face of the club’s stance, posing for a photo he later published on his Twitter account. It might not always be the case on the platform but the replies were largely supportive of the cause. They also, politely in most cases, pleaded with Hitzlsperger to climb down from his recent role in a club conflict which has threatened to torpedo a good first season back in the top flight for a traditional giant which has become a yo-yo club of late.

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Proud ⁦@VfB#VfBM05 pic.twitter.com/ilLKeGzqdq

Stuttgart 2-0 Mainz, Leipzig 1-0 Bayer Leverkusen, Werder Bremen 1-1 Schalke, Eintracht Frankfurt 3-1 Hertha Berlin, Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Augsburg, Bayern Munich 4-1 Hoffenheim, Union Berlin 1-1 Mönchengladbach, Wolfsburg 3-0 Freiburg, Cologne 3-1 Arminia Bielefeld

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