Chaos in BVB’s Champions League final: Violent Fans and High-Risk Games Create Turmoil – Full Analysis and Reactions

The joy of getting into BVB’s Champions League final on Wednesday night was missing. There wasn’t much time to celebrate in 45 minutes of air time. Jan-Henrik Gruszecki, himself a former ultra and now the right-hand man of BVB managing director Hans-Joachim Watzke, had to deal with worse matters. Violent fans and so-called high-risk games are hindering football. It doesn’t rub off, no matter how hard you rub.

The background was a dispute between the DFL and the city state of Bremen in 2015. During a football match between Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV, extra costs were paid​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ Bremen did not want to bear this alone and sent the bill to the German Football League. Decision: The Constitutional Court is now taking into account the situation. A decision is not expected for a few months. The question that the court does not want to clarify: How can violence in football be fundamentally reduced?

Gruszecki on the ban on football guests: “He has something like a family”

“It doesn’t look like this every weekend in every stadium,” Gruszecki said after the editorial team showed photos of a heated fan block in the stadium. For Hamburg Interior Senator Andy Grote, it is just the “ultimate ratio” that clubs could contribute to the costs of police operations in the future. Gruszecki could not imagine the police as a service provider at all. As is known, fans and non-fans pay fees for this, according to the ex-Ultra. For Eva Quadbeck, editor-in-chief of the “German Editorial Network”, there is nothing to prevent clubs from contributing to police costs if the Constitutional Court agreed with the Bremen case.

The term “guest ban,” was cleverly introduced by Lanz. A proposal from Lower Saxony Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD), which means that the next away games will no longer have fan support. “It’s like a family,” Gruszecki explained the politician’s request as if he were an offended boy who was no longer allowed to shoot on the lawn in front of the house. Just because one person behaves badly doesn’t mean you have to punish everyone. “I don’t think that’s confirmed,” said the BVB employee. On the other hand, Andy Grote does, but only “if we can’t control it any other way.” When “talking to each other” doesn’t help anymore.

The second “Caliphate” show has been announced for Saturday

Talking about getting things under control: the presentation by the group “Muslim Interactive”, which is identified as Islamist, got very out of hand in Hamburg. At the second demonstration on Saturday, Grote announced that calls for a caliphate should be strictly banned. It is likely to be difficult to implement as the organizers would need legal advice in the end. “It depends on every sentence,” Grote explained. One might wonder why there is even a second show. In the end Caliphate means nothing but the abolition of democracy. A general ban on demonstrations could not be enforced, Grote avoided Lanz’s persistent questions. The legal framework would be exhausted as much as possible.

Hamburg’s Senator for the Interior rejected the fact that the CDU had already submitted a proposal to ban events of this type as just a “demonstration proposal”. At the same time, he noted that the SPD and the Greens rejected the proposal. “The Greens and the SPD have not necessarily covered themselves in glory,” said journalist Eva Quadbeck. If politicians had banned “Muslim interactives” in time, they would not have need this discussion now.The riot happened mostly on social networks, and with that Grote made sure that they would only check every piece of writing, no matter how small.

Grote said a few sentences later that 1,000 people at a show was not dangerous. As a viewer, you couldn’t help feeling that he was trying to calm himself down with this sentence. Is waiting for the dangerous side really the solution? Not at all, as Eva Quadbeck explained. Politically advocating for a ban and thus sending an important signal must be a top priority for politicians.

The editor-in-chief of the RND called for clear communication, for example in the case of the Blue Mosque in Hamburg, which has been investigated by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for 30 years and where several believers have become radical. Grote didn’t want to let her have the last word. Leaning forward, his hands shaped into Merkel’s mighty diamond, Hamburg’s Interior Senator repeats his mantra: “Everything we can do will be done.”