BERLIN (AP) - Bochum forward Takuma Asano capitalized on Bundesliga protests by eating one of the chocolate coins thrown by fans onto the field and then scoring a goal on Saturday.
The Japan international availed himself of the free snack when supporters threw chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil onto the field to protest the German soccer league's plans to bring in an outside investor.
Asano picked up one of the seasonal treats, unwrapped the gold foil, and ate the chocolate. Then he followed up by scoring to give his team a 1-0 lead against Union Berlin.
Most of the chocolate coins went uneaten, however - Asano couldn't down all of them.
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Bochum's game was just one that was halted briefly Saturday as supporters again found various ways to express their discontent with the league's governing body.
Some fans withdrew their support for their teams for the first 12 minutes, others briefly forced games to stop, and others simply cursed the DFL, as the league is known.
Wolfsburg's match at Darmstadt was suspended briefly when visiting fans set off an impressive but disruptive pyrotechnics display.
Many supporters are deeply unhappy with the DFL's plan to sell a stake of future broadcast revenues to an outside investor, a "strategic marketing partnership" that was approved by 24 of the 36 teams in top two divisions on Monday.
The supporters are concerned about the influence an investor could wield over the league and the changes it could hasten to make it more attractive to TV audiences at the expense of fans who attend games.
The DFL already got a taste Friday of what was to come over the weekend when Borussia Monchengladbach and Werder Bremen supporters stayed silent for the first 12 minutes of their game, before the Gladbach fans forced a five-minute stoppage to play by flinging chocolate coins onto the field.
"It was no fun at all, it reminded me of the coronavirus," Bremen midfielder Leonardo Bittencourt said of the fans' silence, referring to the games played with no paying spectators during the pandemic.
Bundesliga games again kicked off to restrained support Saturday, with most fans also opting to stay silent for the first 12 minutes - a reference to the influence of fans as the proverbial 12th player on a soccer team.
The fans had also stayed silent in second division earlier, when Nuremberg fans threw tennis balls onto the field to force a break in play during their team's game with Hamburger SV.
"We won't play any part in you deal - (expletive) DFL!" read huge banners in front of both sets of fans.
Hertha Berlin and Osnabruck supporters had the same banners in Berlin, where both sets of fans stayed silent early on.
Magdeburg's game against Fortuna Dusseldorf was loud from the beginning, however, with the home team's ultras saying their club had already voted against the DFL's proposed deal on Monday.
Fan clubs and groups known as "ultras" had announced their protest plans in a joint statement on Friday.
"We are not prepared to stand idly by as German soccer gets sold out," they said.
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