#Why these soccer radicals played a game completely naked

In an act of protest against the commercialization of their sport, two amateur German soccer teams played a game on Sunday completely naked.

The protest’s organizer, artist Gerrit Starczewski, said he wanted to covey authenticity, which he believes the sport lacks. The exposing game took place at  Stimberg Stadium on the northern edge of Germany’s industrial Ruhr area.

“The football system is sick, that’s why we all get naked,” Starczewski told sports magazine 11Freunde ahead of the match.

“Everybody wants to have authenticity. But I think you are only particularly authentic if you do without all the other stuff, really everything, from the advertising banners to the clothing. Everybody wants to have authenticity. But I think you are only particularly authentic if you do without all the other stuff, really everything, from the advertising banners to the clothing,”

Players, who came from the town of Oer-Erkenschwick, only wore cleats and socks, which were separated by color to differentiate who was on what team. Numbers were hand-painted on players’ backs.

The revealing protest comes just weeks after Swiss prosecutors launched a criminal probe against the head of FIFA, soccer’s governing body, for alleged “rampant, systematic, deep-rooted” corruption.

“With my nude actions, I also want to set an example for diversity and naturalness and against the dependence and influence of social media and false ideals of beauty,” Starczewski said. “Body authenticity is something that is absent in modern football and that is reflected in how the sport sells a certain kind of body image. Everything has to be perfect there too, and in the end it’s all about commercialization.”