Exchanged home rights after poison attack on the lawn: The first round game in the DFB Cup between the regional league team Teutonia Ottensen and defending champion RB Leipzig can take place as planned on August 30 (8:46 p.m. / Sky) – but not in Dessau.
As the DFB announced on Wednesday, Ottensen is relinquishing home rights so that the game in Leipzig’s Red Bull Arena is increasing.
“We went through different scenarios together. After weighing all the options, this is the best solution,” said DFB Vice President Peter Frymuth. Due to the upcoming game date, a renewed search for possible alternative venues was “not realistic”.
Turf in Dessau unplayable
Unknown people had dumped an apparently toxic substance on the lawn of the Paul Greifzu Stadium in Dessau. Both penalty areas and the area around the center circle are particularly affected. “This is dead grass that won’t grow back anytime soon,” Benjamin Völker from Dessau’s sports promotion department told MDR.
The Hamburg club Teutonia wanted to play the game in Dessau, almost 400 km away, because finding a stadium in and around the Hanseatic city was difficult. The second division clubs FC St. Pauli and Hamburger SV did not want to make their stadium available for a game against Leipzig. Ottensen is not allowed to use their own stadium due to an artificial turf pitch.
The encounter in the first round could not be played at the end of July because Leipzig was still in action against champions Bayern Munich (3:5) in the Supercup. Bayern start the cup on August 31st at third division club Viktoria Köln.
(skysport.de)