Bundesliga club Schalke "has launched an interview boycott against German public broadcaster ZDF," according to Uwe Mantel of DWDL. Neither players nor coaches "were available for interviews after Saturday's Bundesliga game against Stuttgart." The reason for the club's boycott is that ZDF "will for the third time this season show a Champions League game of Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday instead of Schalke's decisive matchup against FC Basel." As a result of the this decision, Schalke Chair Horst Held called for an interview boycott against ZDF. The public broadcaster defended its decision of not showing the Schalke match by saying Dortmund plays the "more attractive football" and its game is "more exciting and interesting" for viewers. The games of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund regularly attract high ratings for ZDF. When the channel aired the Champions League game of Bayer Leverkusen last week, the game was watched by a season-low 5.6 million viewers. Held defended the club's boycott by saying, "We didn't consider it attractive enough to stand for interviews." However, Heldt added that the interview boycott against ZDF "was a one-off occurrence" (DWDL, 12/2).
