Huge security precautions
Hansa Rostock even sends toilet guards to Rot-Weiss Essen
Hansa Rostock even sends toilet guards to Rot-Weiss Essen
04.04.2025, 4:32 p.m.
Last October, Rostock supporters attacked a train with fans of Rot-Weiss Essen. A large raid will take place in both camps in March. On Sunday there is the second leg of the two third division clubs – and the police are alerted.
Almost a month after the great police raid against football fans of Hansa Rostock and Rot-Weiss Essen, the explosive third division duel of the clubs will take place on Sunday evening under great security precautions. For Rostock supporters, the Esseners sold 600 guest cards less than usual. Instead, a small seat area in the stadium on Hafenstrasse is set up as a buffer zone between the two fan groups. Hansa, in turn, gives away tickets only to members and not in a free sale this month.
The Rostockers also bring their own folders to Essen, which are supposed to protect the toilets in the guest block. In March, Hansa fans had rioted at the away game in Aachen and, among other things, demolished sanitary facilities and seat shells. “We prepare intensively and stand in close exchange with the Rostock police, with Hansa Rostock and Rot-Weiss Essen,” said a police spokesman for the NDR. This game is “not business as usual” because it has a explosive history.
Before the first game in Rostock in October, around 200 Hansa supporters in Brandenburg attacked a special train with around 700 RWE fans. Five members of the Supervisory Board of the second division relegated also resigned in response to this a few days later. In March, the police searched several apartments in North Rhine-Westphalia, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Berlin and Brandenburg as part of this robbery. Investigations were initiated against 31 suspects. Although both clubs had not played against each other for more than 17 years before the game in October, this third division duel is now a high risk game.
No “stupid youngsters”
“We do not allow a legal space,” said Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Interior Minister Christian Belegel of the “Ostsee-Zeitung” about the house searches and the problems with violent supporters of FC Hansa. “We show through this consistent procedure that we qualify things as moderate and serious crimes and not as a stupid young pranks.” The SPD politician praised the procedure of the new Rostock club management around CEO Jürgen Wehlend. Measures such as the sale of away tickets only to club members do not go far enough.
“There is not one measure that solves all problems,” said Pegel. “If I bought a card as a club member and then pass it on, it does not notice that at the stadium inlet.
