It started as a big party on the Cote d’Azur, then a dark shadow followed due to terrible riots in the stadium and in the end 1. FC Köln missed the deserved victory at the start of the Conference League with an unlucky penalty.
1. FC Köln’s first group game in the European Cup in almost five years turned into an emotional rollercoaster ride. In the end, the team of coach Steffen Baumgart, who was locked in the stands, had to settle for a 1-1 (1-0) draw at OGC Nice, despite a strong performance for a long time.
18 injured
But the impressions of the serious riots before the first conference league group game weighed more heavily than the frustration at the missed victory. In the meantime, the staging was on the brink, in the end it was kicked off 55 minutes late at 7.40 p.m. In the event of another incident, the game will be canceled immediately, UEFA said. But this one didn’t happen. According to the Nice Police Prefecture, 18 people were injured.
Steffen Tigges, who came from Dortmund in the summer, put Cologne in the lead at the break with his first competitive goal (19th) against the team of long-time Bundesliga coach Lucien Favre. Nice equalized with a hand penalty from Andy Delort (62′). Timo Hübers got the ball against his arm from a free kick in the wall.
But the game will have an emotional and financial aftermath for FC because of the riots. “I’m stunned,” said Cologne’s managing director Christian Keller before the game on RTL +. “Of our 8,000 fans, 7,900 behaved well, and from Nice there weren’t much more than a few dozen complete chaotic people, although chaotic people are too weak a word. I can only think of swear words that don’t belong here.”
Man falls from the stands
Amateur videos from fans showed a supporter falling from the middle tier while dodging a firecracker. According to the police prefecture, it was a supporter from Paris, with whom FC Ultras maintain a fan friendship. Another is said to have been attacked with a knife. “It shows that what happened here is perverse,” said Keller.
He described the process as follows: “My information is that hooligans from Nice invaded our fan block first. Then there are hooligans from our fan block, most of whom are said to come from Paris and were disguised as Cologne, and of course a few from Cologne afterwards.” The people who did this must be found and dealt with without any compromises and with the utmost severity. “You must never, ever come back to the stadium, at least not to Cologne.” Many FC fans sang during the riots: “We are from Cologne and you are not.”
Appeal to followers
Cologne’s captain Jonas Hector and Nice’s captain Dante stepped in front of their fan blocks with microphones. “We wanted to celebrate a football festival with you. We still want to play, but of course we can’t approve of that,” said Hector: “We worked our ass off to qualify for the Conference League and we want this here also play. Please keep quiet, we want to celebrate football here and not have violence.”
At midday, thousands of FC fans paraded through the city and celebrated their club’s return to the European Cup with carnival hits and a big parade. Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi was upset with the legacy and behavior of FC supporters.
“I regret the rude and scandalous behavior of the Cologne fans and the lack of respect for the city, which welcomes them generously and brotherly,” he tweeted with photos of garbage leftovers in the city. “We will send the invoices for damage and the cleaning of public places to the Cologne club,” he announced.