Baller League may be doing many things right. After starting out in Germany in 2023, it expanded to the UK and is preparing to launch in the USA.
But Starck conceded there is “room for improvement in every department”.
Several incidents of violence marred the opening UK season, with manager AngryGinge left with scratch marks on his neck following a fight between players from SDS and Yanited during matchday seven.
The Yanited manager later said he had been “gripped up and kicked” while in the middle of a melee on the pitch.
That incident came a week after former Premier League defender Joleon Lescott, who appeared as a guest player, was almost wrestled over the advertising hoardings during an altercation with Wembley Rangers’ Domingos Pires.
On matchday five, Troy Deeney was sent off for charging into a player from FC Rules the World with his forearm raised.
“We’re a very soft society these days but this is sport, this is emotion,” Starck said.
“If two roosters get in a room they are going to fight and we have 250 roosters, so they are going to fight.
“We had whole talks [after incidents], we don’t discuss publicly what we did but we took measures to make sure things like this don’t happen again.”
Unlike the Premier League, Baller League is not regulated by a governing body and therefore sanctions are processed by its internal disciplinary commission.
Baller League took action after tensions boiled over again on the penultimate matchday of the regular season, when Trebol FC’s Amine Sassi appeared to kick an opponent in the head as they lay on the floor – handing out a one-match suspension.
“Baller League upholds a strict zero-tolerance policy for this kind of behaviour and will continue to enforce it consistently,” the organisation posted at the time., external
