1. FC Cologne is to pay 595,000 euros because fans of the Bundesliga club staged themselves as fireworks at the home game against Mönchengladbach. Your abilities, it seems almost amusing, are limited. They shot an extraordinary amount of pyrotechnics under the roof, from where it fell burning. Actually, fun is forbidden for people with a thirst for enlightenment.
He will definitely stop at this point. Even the club’s management, which is sympathetic to its clientele, sees a red line being crossed. The high penalty from the German Football Association (DFB) can be derived from this. But does it help to stop the danger to life and limb for spectators?
The draconian punishment is also an expression of powerlessness. Whatever has been done so far, nothing has produced an acceptable result. The interesting attempt to ask an unavailable fireworker to pay many thousands of euros also fails again and again; mostly because of the masking. The clubs are not wrong to complain that they are at their mercy.
Here the pressure from the DFB, the police, the public and there that from ruthless fans who always find a way. A stadium is as full of holes as Swiss cheese. Many people, whether connected to the club or not, are willing to smuggle in pyrotechnics. Week after week the problem blows up in clubs’ faces. Under these circumstances it cannot be controlled and certainly cannot be stopped immediately.
Example England
The clubs affected are partly to blame for this. They buy the wonderful, moving atmosphere on days without polluting, dangerous combustion engines with a sometimes fatal permissiveness. The self-image of a small group of influential ultras has long extended to defending their curve against stewards and the police – with violence. If club bosses now plausibly explain that a police operation on a curve when there is imminent danger will lead to an escalation, then it is time to act: out with the radical ultras, with all young violence freaks, whether they are waving a flag or just for the sake of the spectacle Look for riots.
Jan Ehrhardt Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 14 Matthias Trautsch Published/Updated: Recommendations: 16 Daniel Theweleit, Cologne Published/Updated: Recommendations: 2
“Personalized” cards may be a means, and probably also more intensive prosecution of the perpetrators by the club and the state, including severe punishment. But if you want to deprive the scene of its basis, you first have to take away the playground and swap standing places for seats. This requires a willingness to make sacrifices and the ability to withstand the anger among the radicals, even if it is tangible, for the foreseeable future.
There will be no mood killer for all time. The English banned standing over the age of 28 until last year, which dampened the hustle and bustle. But the world still looks with fascination at the atmosphere in its stadiums. As a rule, it is enough to play football well.
