Over 300,000 euros! Hold punishment for pyro offenses

Newsblog for 1. FC Cologne

For fan offenses: FC will be deserved for juicy fine

The 1. FC Köln is the football club from the cathedral city. In the New sticker on T-Online you will find all the important messages about the “billy goats”.

The 1. FC Köln has to pay a juicy punishment to the DFB in four games in four games. A total of 316,400 euros were made. The largest proportion is the pyro show before the cup game against Hertha BSC on December 4, 2024. At that time, several hundred fireworks had been raised in the south curve and numerous beacons had been ignited. For this, the DFB has set a sum of 290,600 euros.

As the DFB reports, the punishment could have been twice as high if the club had not determined two perpetrators. According to the applicable guidelines, this leads to a criminal reduction of 50 percent. In addition, the association threatened to consider further sanctions that go beyond a fine, should “other serious pyro occurrences in the Cologne audience block”.

Another 15,600 euros are added to the burning of Bengalische Feinen against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, 8,400 euros from the game against Eintracht Braunschweig and 1800 euros for the game against SV Elversberg. FC sports director Christian Keller was not very pleased with the punishment, especially since such had not led to a rethink of the fan scenes.

“Uncontrolled burning of pyrotechnics is prohibited and therefore it would be desirable that it does not take place. So far, however, no rigorous approach has been successfully crowned,” said the managing director. “The dialogue between the club, fan scene and security providers is therefore the only sustainable path. For me, the security concept always goes. As long as nobody in the stadium is harmed, pyrotechnics can be accepted as part of the fan culture in a certain, also economically justifiable framework. Of course, this does not apply to Pyro excesses like the cup game against Hertha BSC.”

Despite the rather disappointing 1-1 draw at SpVgg Greuther Fürth, the 1. FC Köln is one of the winners of the match day in the promotion race. Since Magdeburg and Kaiserslautern both lost their games, the billy goats were able to expand their lead over the two direct pursuers.

SC Paderborn and Hannover 96 also had to give up. For this, SV Elversberg and Fortuna Düsseldorf were able to win their games and shorten the gap to FC to four points. Five game days before the end of the season, the Cologne team still have a lead of two games. If the FC gets nine points from the remaining games, the pursuers should no longer allow themselves to be defeated. From a Cologne perspective, a comfortable starting point in front of the final sprint.

After the incumbent board of the 1st FC Köln announced on Saturday not to stand for a further term in autumn, Vice President Carsten Wettich has now announced a new candidacy. The lawyer will again apply for the office with a new team.

The 45-year-old will compete with the entrepreneur Wilke Storman and ex-FC player Tugba Tekkal. Storman is to become the new FC president. The 44-year-old founded the Sparhandy company at the beginning of the millennium, is a glowing FC fan and is considered to be well networked in Cologne. Tekkal has been committed to numerous social projects since their end of their career in 2017 and would ensure sporting competence. However, it is still unclear whether the member council will propose the trio for election in autumn. By August 15, the committee must submit its proposal to the election commission at the latest.

The reigning board of the 1st FC Köln announced its retirement on Saturday. Werner Wolf, Eckhard Sauren and Carsten Wettich announced that they will no longer be available as a trio for another term. “After intensive considerations and conversations, we – Werner Wolf, Carsten Wettich and Eckhard Sauren – came to the conclusion that we were not running for a further term as a board team in the current composition,” said the message.