The dispute over the tickets for the Eintracht fans at the game in Naples is one after the other. Eintracht board member Philipp Reschke has now announced that no one wants to expose anyone to the “danger of official arbitrariness” and that they will not give up the tickets.
Eintracht Frankfurt failed with a renewed appeal against the partial exclusion of its fans in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 at SSC Naples. The administrative court of the Italian region of Campania rejected an urgent complaint by the Hessians on Monday, as the association announced. The Hesse lawyers had taken action against an ordinance by the Prefect of Naples, which had banned the sale of tickets to all fans from the city of Frankfurt for the game on Wednesday (9 p.m., live in the sports show audio stream).
Even before this verdict, Eintracht had announced that it would waive the quota of 2,700 guest tickets it was actually entitled to. The Hessians cited security concerns for their supporters as one of the reasons for this. One does not want to “expose anyone on site to the obvious danger of official arbitrariness,” it said.
One-time process
The fan dispute between the authorities in Italy and Eintracht had escalated in the past few days. First, the Ministry of the Interior had announced the exclusion of all supporters from Germany, which was declared invalid by the Administrative Court of Naples after an objection by Eintracht. On Sunday, the prefecture then imposed a new ban, this time for all visiting fans from the city of Frankfurt. The Eintracht lawyers also took action against this – but this time without success.
Frankfurt speaks of a unique event in the European Cup and is outraged by the development. Uefa has not yet commented on the case. According to their own statements, the authorities in Naples want to prevent violent fan groups from rioting.
Worries from the Ajax game
“UEFA is a bit of a prisoner of its own regulations, since state authorities have priority over association law”emphasized Eintracht board member Philipp Reschke on Monday on the hr microphone, but also explained: “Uefa is called upon to be prepared for future cases of this kind. This will probably only work by adapting the rules in such a way that this gap, which undoubtedly existed, is closed in such a way that there is no domino effect.”
According to the Ansa news agency, Naples Mayor Gaetano Manfredi said on Monday: “We’re not worried about safety at the stadium, we’re concerned about what can happen in the city.” He recalled Napoli’s group game against Ajax Amsterdam this Champions League season, when clashes broke out in the city center between fans, who ransacked a restaurant and a Dutch fan was stabbed.
