Arsenal legend Jens Lehmann has been sacked from his role on the Hertha Berlin board, after describing Dennis Aogo as a ‘token black guy’.
The former goalkeeper has made a huge blunder in not only sending this message to the wrong person, but using this disgraceful term into a group chat which Aogo himself has access to it seems.
Lehmann has since posted on his Twitter that he has apologised to the former German international, talking of his admiration for his work.
It certainly sounds as if we haven’t heard the last of this, as the conversation that this comment was supposed to be in could well shine a bad light on further parties.
While Hertha Berlin have already moved to strike him from their hierarchy, Sky are yet to remove him from their list of pundits which you would expect would be a possibility depending on a possible investigation.
I don’t imagine this full convo will ever be released to the public, but Sky should be building an investigation into this I imagine.
Regardless of the findings, Lehmann’s stock will no doubt take a huge hit, and he may well be forced to explain his comments further.
Hertha are certainly taking no considerations and released a statement of their own.
“Jens Lehmann’s contract will be terminated with immediate effect. This also means that his mandate on the supervisory board will no longer apply,” a spokesperson for the investor group told Die Welt(via ESPN).
“We personally regret this, but it is not compatible with the principles of Tennor and [investor] Lars Windhorst. Especially against the background that we have many people of colour as employees.”
Patrick