“Disaster, Irresponsible”
“Highly dangerous” drink chaos in Seville
May 19, 2022, 4:48 p.m
When Eintracht Frankfurt won the final in the Europa League, there was apparently a dangerous organizational failure off the pitch: for hours there was no way for fans of the Bundesliga club to get drinks. A fan expert attests the organizers a disaster.
Fan expert Michael Gabriel was a spectator at Eintracht Frankfurt’s Europa League triumph in Seville and vehemently criticized the supply of drinks to the fans. “People had to go to the toilet to get water. That was a disaster and, in my opinion, absolutely irresponsible,” said the head of the nationwide coordination office for fan projects (KOS) of the German Press Agency. He was private at the final. The fans’ attempts to get water in the toilets were stopped by the police after a few minutes, and later the tap water in the toilets was apparently turned off.
During the game on Wednesday evening, when it was very hot, Eintracht supporters had already complained about closed drink stands, and long before kick-off all the drink stands in the German fans’ corner were sold out. The allegations increased on Thursday night on social media. The European Football Union UEFA, as the organizer of the game, announced that the problems are being examined together with the local organizing committee, the stadium operator, the food and beverage concessionaires and the police.
Gabriel confirmed the complaints of the Frankfurt viewers. There wasn’t enough water even before kick-off, and there weren’t any contacts to be found either. The police weren’t helpful either. “The situation was highly dangerous from a health and safety perspective,” he said. “All the more impressive that the fans reacted very responsibly.”
Fans suffer dizzy spells in the block
The Alliance of Active Football Fans (BAFF) tweeted during the game: “Seville 21.37. 31 degrees. There isn’t a kiosk in the entire Eintracht curve that’s open to buy something to drink. Well done, UEFA!” In the course of the second half, the kiosks with emergency rations were reopened. Fans and journalists report that the water was brought to the drink stands under police protection.
In the evening, the European heroes from Eintracht Frankfurt are expected back home, where ntv and RTL will receive them. From 6 p.m. you can see the return of the eagles in the live stream on RTL, RTL+ and ntv.de. ntv will show the big party at the Römer live from 7.30 p.m. in the stream and on TV. RTL has an RTL Aktuell special from 8:15 p.m.
The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” reported that during the game “in the blocks there were attacks of weakness among fans, some of whom were completely exhausted and dehydrated due to the lack of water”. Temperatures in Seville were well over 30 degrees in the evening.
Eintracht had won the game 5-4 on penalties against Glasgow Rangers in the 44,000-seat Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. Fan expert Gabriel also complained that almost everything was taken from the spectators upon admission – including power banks that the fans had with them to charge their cell phones because they had electronic tickets.