Players attack each other
Dispute after relegation: “Completely ridiculous”
May 27, 2026 – 8:09 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
The first leg between Essen and Fürth was already heated. The second leg was in no way inferior to the game.
SpVgg Greuther Fürth has done it. The “Kleeblatt” defeated the third division club Rot-Weiss Essen 2-0 in the second leg of the second division relegation and secured relegation at the last minute. The game between the Franconians and the club from the Ruhr area was heated. The duel between Ben Vincent Hüning (Essen) and Noel Futkeu (Fürth) was particularly tough. The Fürth striker and the tough Essen defender came to blows several times.
The two had not taken anything away from each other in the first leg, but things got even more intense in the second leg. According to Hüning, Futkeu provoked unnecessarily on Tuesday evening after his goal to make it 1-0 in the 29th minute.
“To me it’s completely wrong, completely ridiculous, it just doesn’t work,” complained Hüning about the second division top scorer on Sky TV. “It’s just unsportsmanlike.” Mutual respect is “always necessary and important” in football. Futkeu himself initially kept his thoughts to himself. “I’m not going to get into him, I don’t want to. We won, stayed in the league, that’s it,” said Futkeu, who then indicated: “He knows exactly what he did in the first leg. They know exactly what they did in the first leg. I don’t need to say anything more.”
Rot-Weiss Essen’s Hüning feels “completely empty”
But Futkeu and Hüning were not the only ones who clashed. After the final whistle yesterday, Tuesday, a pack formed. For example, the former Fürth man Dickson Abiama, who ran up, also pushed his opponent Paul Will, who fell to the ground.
However, the Essenes’ frustration was not relieved. The sadness was too great because of the missed promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. Ben Vincent Hüning felt “completely empty”. Goalkeeper Jakob Golz admitted: “It hurts incredibly.” Coach Uwe Koschinat also felt a lot of pride: “RWE has left an impression in Germany. That will remain at some point when the pain is over.”
