After riots at Hansa Rostock
Schalke justifies transporting fans in the team bus
December 11, 2023, 5:10 p.m
After Schalke’s guest game in Rostock, which was overshadowed by fan riots, the team bus drives back to Gelsenkirchen not with the players, but with a few supporters on board. In a statement, the second division team explains the unusual measure – and announces that it will be looked into.
After the fan riots during the away game at Hansa Rostock, second division football team Schalke 04 condemned “all kinds of violence”. “The obvious riots in the stadium are unacceptable for the club,” the Bundesliga relegated team said in a statement. These “will have consequences for these people should a clear and unambiguous identification be made by the authorities.”
Schalke’s 2-0 away win in Rostock’s Ostseestadion was overshadowed by riots in the stands on Sunday, which led to a more than 25-minute interruption of the game shortly before half-time. After the two fan groups clashed, the police had to intervene.
Referee Nicolas Winter then sent both teams to the dressing rooms. The referee had previously interrupted the game for almost two minutes in the early stages after clouds of smoke drifted across the pitch due to the burning of pyrotechnics.
Schalke wants to deal with incidents
The miners continued that the investigation into the incidents had begun. Since this is ongoing, “no final classification can be made by the club at this point”. First of all, we have to wait for the findings of the organizer and the responsible authorities. At the same time, however, the club emphasized: “The absolute majority of the fans who traveled with us behaved completely peacefully and reacted calmly to the tense situation.”
In addition, the table 13th explained. a “safety-relevant decision” after the end of the game. On the way back, one of the Schalke fan buses was “no longer roadworthy due to a defect. This meant that there was a realistic scenario that fans would have had to stay in Rostock.” To counteract this, the affected supporters were transported back to Gelsenkirchen in the team bus. This came after S04 coach Karel Geraerts’ team was dropped off at Rostock Airport.