Schalke 04 missed what is probably their last chance to save face on Tuesday.

After Russia's attack on the peace order, the traditional club finally had to show its long-controversial sponsor, the Russian state-owned company Gazprom, the red card.

There was a simple, but highly effective means of making the Royal Blues' solidarity with Ukraine clear: the club should have instructed its players to stop wearing Gazprom shirts and wear black armbands for the time being.

Instead, on the day after Putin's most recent monstrosity, nothing more came from Gelsenkirchen than waxy, unworldly sentences like this: "FC Schalke 04 will monitor developments, evaluate them and emphatically appeal for peace - to protect the people affected by the crisis." in the club management's statement as to who the aggressor is.

The victim Ukraine is not mentioned once.

Instead, it is important to the Royal Blues that their club is “in constant dialogue” with their “long-term main sponsor” and Gazprom, which has been “a reliable partner” for 15 years.

You can think of it as a soliloquy at its core.

Because at FC Schalke 04 Matthias Warnig has been a Gazprom representative on the supervisory board since 2019.

Warnig was once a captain in the East German state security service, is a member of the management of the gas pipeline company Nord Stream AG and is considered a close friend of Putin.

Since then, Schalke has not only been dependent on Gazprom financially, but also spiritually and morally.

Even before Warnig entered the supervisory board, Schalke was well trained to overlook even the greatest monstrosities: the occupation of Crimea by Russia, Russia's years of heating up the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which Putin has now callously exacerbated to the maximum, the shooting down a Boeing of Malaysia Airlines with a Russian anti-aircraft missile – there was never an audible, adequate sign, the heavily indebted club was never about principles, but about the vile mammon.

At the beginning of 2021 - before relegation to the second division - the contract with Gazprom was extended.

The end justifies the sponsor, with this motto must be over, but not only at Schalke, but also at the European Football Union UEFA.

Gazprom is also heavily involved there as a sponsor.

What else needs to be done to make things change?

This is the question that Schalke fans, who have been terribly indifferent up to now, have to ask themselves.

If their club is not able to do this, then they should send a strong, audible signal.