Swiss Soccer Fans Protest Esports by Throwing Tennis Balls and Game Controllers On the Field (variety.com)

Soccer fans in Switzerland protested against increased investment in esports by throwing tennis balls and game consoles on the field during a Swiss Super League match. From a report: The fans reportedly threw tennis balls and game controllers onto the field, forcing the referee to stop the game between Young Boys and FC Basel for two minutes while everything was cleared away. The Young Boys protesters then held up a giant banner with a pause button symbol, while Basel fans also raised their own sign supporting the protest. One of the banners read "Scheiss esports," which roughly translates to "esports are s---." European soccer clubs are increasingly getting involved in esports leagues. While Young Boys doesn't have any skin in professional gaming yet, Basel has its own "FIFA" team.

Comments

What the article leaves out

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that the fans are under the (possibly true) impression that the league is making participation in esports a licensing requirement for next season.

Local sources

[DrYak]

Source A, local free small news paper "20min"
Source B, the national ISP and IPTV service provider Bluewin

Sorry, source in German only (well at least it's in Schriftdütsch and not in dialect).

Source A has a side bar with an interview of one of the potester. His arguments, he's feeling danger, because :
  - Mixing E-Sport could divert kids attention away from "real" (his words) sport and keep them glued to the screen.
  - He's actually not afraid of money being invested into e-Sport instead of soccer teams (i.e.: not afraid of money lacking). But he'll find it problematic once the league's clubs start to assemble E-Sport teams. "What could this lead to ?"
  - He's not buying the argument that e-Sport could attract more fans. His opinion is that a video game is a wrong reason to become a fan. He's actually against bringing even more people into stadiums (?!). Specially given that Bern's team is already successful for the last 3-4 years. He's not interested in pseudo-"fans" who are just following some fad.

On their side, the proponent of the e-Sport investment actually want to fight the "fat nerd in the sofa" clich&eacute. Actually the point is to have the e-Sport team have some fitness training and balance diets, some are actual soccer players, etc. They want to cultivate healthy gamers.
At the end of the day, they see eSport as a marketing tool, able to reach out and attract more of the younger generation..