Cacau condemns Tönnies statements and welcomes investigation

Cacau, as Integration Commissioner of the German Football Association (DFB), has condemned the racist statement of Schalke Supervisory Board boss Clemens Tönnies in all clarity. “The scornful words of Clemens Tönnies shocked me,” the ex-national player is quoted in a statement published by the DFB.

The longer he thinks about it, “the more unimaginable it becomes that a man of his position and experience speaks so generalizingly and disparagingly about the population of an entire continent”, stressed Cacau and welcomed “that Clemens Tönnies’ statement is now also being examined by the DFB Ethics Commission”.

Tönnies’ multiple apologies for “content and form” were “urgently needed,” said the 38-year-old, underlining the integrative component of football: “We footballers and officials bear a special responsibility and should fight racism authentically and with all our might and not participate in a division that is already noticeable in our society.

Tönnies, who had to explain himself to the Schalker honorary council on Tuesday, had given a speech on the topic “Entrepreneurship with responsibility – ways into the future of food production” at the festive event of the “Day of Crafts” in Paderborn. The Schalke boss recommended the financing of power stations in Africa and said according to the newspaper Neue Westfälische: “Then the Africans would stop felling trees and they would stop producing children when it is dark.