After intensive consultation with the board of directors, the people from Krems decided to appeal against the first verdict. The city of Krems not only wants to pay for the protest fee of 1,000 euros, but also promised the club cross-party support in this process at its municipal council meeting on December 14th.
In a joint letter to the European Handball Councilor for Sport Jochen Danninger, Mayor Reinhard Resch and City Councilor for Sport Bernadette Laister, they also regret that the Austrian Handball Association did not take a clear position on the incidents.
The further wording: „ From our point of view, the EHF has so far missed the opportunity to send a clear signal for fair play and against violence in (handball) sport. Rather, the UHK Krems, which is not guilty of anything, is punished with a disproportionately high fine of 7,500 euros, while Vojvodina gets the promotion for free and has to pay almost the same fine as Krems.
Reacted too quickly from the EHF’s point of view
For EHF General Secretary Martin Hausleitner, a native of Tullner, the UHK should not have gone public immediately with its refusal not to compete in Novi Sad. As a result, according to the statutes, the association was also obliged to initiate proceedings against Krems (Also read the report on page 85 in the sports section).
Wait longer – higher costs
At first, the Wachauers only threatened not to play the second leg if the Serbs did not present a security concept for their home game. After all, Krems players were threatened and spat on during the game. Novi Sad did not comply with this demand, which was finally canceled. After all, the flights to Serbia had to be cancelled. The costs would have skyrocketed if you had waited any longer.
perpetrator-victim reversal
The hooligans all came from the Serbian football scene (FC Vojvodina), so they had little to do with handball. These around 70 people were only concerned with riots and riots, which was confirmed by the riots in downtown Krems. The sad thing about it: The club must have been aware of the people for whom they had ordered tickets in advance from the Chamber of Industry and Commerce… After all these incidents, they were then punished with promotion and a more than mild financial penalty, borders on chutzpah.
imbalance of penalties
It also remains doubtful whether the Serbs will also pay for the damage caused by the hooligans in the area (police action with escort to the state border, etc.) according to the EHF ruling. The imbalance in the penalties for the perpetrators and the victims, who did not want to expose themselves to further danger after the scandal in Krems, remains even without the above costs.