Hansa Rostock’s CEO Robert Marien sees the fan incidents at his club’s second division game at FC St. Pauli crossing a line. “We accumulated massive penalties. You have to discuss that. But I don’t want to focus on the financial issue today, because violence was involved today, in a form in which a red line was far exceeded,” he told journalists on Sunday after Rostock’s 1-0 defeat. A total of around 3,000 Hansa fans came to Hamburg’s Millerntor Stadium.
The fears of the northern duel, classified as a high-risk game, were confirmed at least after the half-time break. Because pyrotechnics were ignited and firecrackers were thrown in and out of the fan block of the guests from Rostock, the game was started ten minutes late after the break.
According to FC St. Pauli, a folder was injured and taken to the hospital. The association said he was hit by a ceramic part of a destroyed sink. In addition, a St. Pauli fan was injured by being shot at with a firecracker. According to FC St. Pauli, fire was set in a destroyed toilet facility.
“Dimension that is difficult to bear”
“The incidents at half-time outweigh the defeat,” said Marien. “Not only were red lines crossed, some of their brains stopped working. When ceramic parts then fly through the air, rockets and firecrackers – they can hit their own fans and other fans.” Unfortunately, a folder was hit. “We can only apologize for that and wish him all the best.” He couldn’t be ashamed of 50 people. “They’re just idiots. I distance myself from them, they have nothing to do with Hansa Rostock,” he emphasized.
St. Pauli’s President Oke Göttlich, like Marien, had condemned the events. “That doesn’t correspond at all to the good talks we had with those responsible at Hansa Rostock,” he said on the pay-TV channel Sky. It is a “dimension that is difficult to bear”.
Nevertheless, Marien wants to continue to seek dialogue with the active fan groups. “It always comes down to cooperation and dialogue. When it came to the violence, we always agreed in the fan groups that the red lines that we defined should be respected,” he said. “The second thing is that you talk about the financial damage.” The club – like other clubs – has repeatedly been asked to pay by the DFB sports court for misconduct by the fans in the past.
Despite the events in the stadium, the Hamburg police drew a positive balance of their work on Sunday evening. “In particular, by consistently separating the two fan groups, the police successfully managed a difficult operation,” she said. According to the police, several investigations have been initiated.
According to the Hamburg police, they were supported by federal police forces and police units from Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin. A total of around 1,700 police officers were on duty. Thanks to the massive presence of police officers and equipment, it was “largely quiet” until the game kicked off, with the exception of a few incidents, as a police spokesman said. Even after the game, there were only a few incidents.