P. Köster: cabin sermon
Stuttgart excesses – when folders become hooligans
© Twitter Fanhilfe Mönchengladbach
As soon as spectators are back in the stadiums, clashes break out. A cell phone video from Stuttgart shows that the fans are not always to blame.
There are disturbing scenes, captured in a seven-second mobile phone video, filmed on Saturday evening after the Bundesliga game between VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Mönchengladbach. You can see a group of stewards thrashing and kicking Gladbach fans in a grandstand exit of the Stuttgart stadium. The supporters try hard to protect themselves from the blows, which also fails because the stewards are obviously experienced martial artists.
Precise documentation of folder misconduct
When Fanhilfe Mönchengladbach, a voluntary organization that supports Borussia fans in conflicts with the police, published this video on social media, there was great outrage. This was mainly due to the fact that a randomly filmed video rarely documents such precise misconduct by stewards and also leaves little room for the assumption that the short clip once again only shows the self-defense of innocent law enforcement officers who got into trouble against rampaging fans.
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Because he doesn’t. In the meantime, numerous witness statements, made independently of one another, allow a fairly precise picture of what happened in the Gladbach block. Two Borussia supporters who got into each other’s hair. A group of folders from the service provider SDS (self-promotion “We make sure that you and your guests feel comfortable and completely safe at all times”) pushed relatively rudely into the block. A few people from Gladbach, who, somewhat stubbornly, did not immediately clear the way when the stewards pushed them in the direction of the exit. And finally the excesses of beatings, which ended for several people with injuries and the main victim with a skull contusion from numerous blows, which has now also been medically documented.
Incidents like this one in Stuttgart are much more frequent than is publicly known. Before the pandemic caused contact between fans and law enforcement officers to become rare due to ghost games, there were reports of physical altercations on almost every matchday, often initiated by fans, but often also provoked by security guards. The chance that the followers will be right in subsequent court proceedings is not great given their mostly bad reputation. But still more likely than in a legal confrontation with police officers. If a report is filed here, there is usually an immediate retaliation via a counter-report, and in court the statements of the police officers are often given greater weight.
It is now all the more important that there are consequences in the Stuttgart case. The incidents are now being investigated. The video recordings of the stadium cameras are viewed by the Stuttgart police. In addition, VfB, as hosts, has promised a test, but could not resist the classic reflexes. A first statement spoke so vaguely of the “arguments in the guest block”, in which “there were injuries”, that the impression could arise that fans had once again sought confrontation. The fact that the club couldn’t even deign to wish the injured supporters a recovery fit into the picture. Like a gang of hooligans looking for the next field match
The club would not have risked anything if they had at least acknowledged that the behavior of the stewards would not be acceptable even if there had been disputes with supporters beforehand. Targeted punches to the head, plus kicks from the second row, executed in a professional manner, are definitely taboo for security forces – stewards have a clearly defined task in the stadium and are not allowed to behave like a vulgar hooligan troop looking for the next field match.
The Gladbacher Fanhilfe estimates the chances of being able to sue the folders legally as promising. What the security company SDS will still cause a headache – as well as the Gladbach trailer maltreated by folders.
