Scandal in Germany

Riots at high-risk match: 79 injured

Symbolic image

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/Ardan Fuessmann – ardan.de)

In Germany, there were violent riots after the regional league match between FC Carl Zeiss Jena and BSG Chemie Leipzig, resulting in 79 injuries. According to the police, ten police officers, five stewards and 64 spectators from Jena and Leipzig were injured. In front of 7224 spectators, including 1084 Chemie supporters, Jena had won the match 5:0. The match was considered a high-risk game because the ultra groups have been enemies for years.

Even before the game, around 350 home fans had marched through the city unannounced. The march, from which pyrotechnics were set off several times, was stopped by the police "using physical force, batons and irritant gas".

Pyrotechnics during the match
Pyrotechnics were repeatedly set off during the regional league match. After the final whistle, Leipzig fans threw fireworks in the direction of the Jena supporters. "This prompted both active fan camps to forcibly open two buffer gates behind the south stand. As a result, there was a brief, uncontrolled clash between the two fan camps with disinhibited violence," said the Jena State Police Inspectorate.

"The situation could only be stopped by the intervening police forces with the use of irritant gas and the baton," it continued. According to a report in the "Ostthüringer Zeitung", which referred to people present, uninvolved spectators were also injured by pepper spray. There was massive damage to property and a total of 40 criminal and administrative offenses were reported.

FC Carl Zeiss Jena announced "that a larger group of the approximately 1,200 guest fans from Leipzig that evening had violently broken through the buffer area between the guest block and Block N" and gained "access to the home area of the active Jena fan scene".