Hamburger SV: Head of the Hamburg police union terminates membership

Sport “Broken diamond in the heart”

Head of the Hamburg police union terminates HSV membership

As of: 2:27 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes

The mood between the police and HSV fans remains tense. GdP state chairman Horst Niens is now drawing conclusions and terminating his membership in the club. One encounter was the final straw.

The state chairman of the Hamburg police union GdP has terminated his membership in Hamburger SV. As the “Hamburger Morgenpost” reported, the club’s initial lack of reaction to a banner in the Volksparkstadion and an encounter with a fan were the decisive factors for Horst Niens. “Only when the discussion reached politics and drove HSV to react was there a statement. “Such salami tactics don’t work,” Niens told the newspaper.

Since the end of February there has been an increasing conflict between the police and fans of the second division soccer team. After the Hamburger SV game in Rostock (2:2), there was an hour-long check by more than 850 HSV fans on one train. The aim was to look for suspected violent perpetrators. According to police, 31 suspects have been identified.

Horst Niens, state chairman of the Hamburg police union

Quelle: pa/dpa/Daniel Reinhardt

Those affected and Hamburg politicians had questioned the proportionality of the deployment. At the subsequent game against Elversberg (1-0), a banner in the Volksparkstadion read: “All of Hamburg hates the police.” A poster showed a helmet with blood flowing out of it.

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After criticism from politicians, the association distanced itself from the content of the choreography. During the 2-1 defeat against Osnabrück last Sunday, fans burned a police shirt in the stadium. Investigations were then initiated.

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For Niens, “hate has no place in a football stadium anyway.” After the Elversberg game, the police officer met a fan while on patrol who told him he hated the police. The 59-year-old then canceled his more than 20-year membership with HSV via email. The message read: “With a broken diamond in my heart, I hereby cancel my membership.”