Wednesday December 22, 2021
The court approves the Bundesliga team
“City ban” for fans was illegal
Eintracht Frankfurt is traveling to Marseille for a big European Cup evening in 2018, but no one is allowed to join them except for the team. Especially no fans. They are not allowed in the stadium and not even in the city. There is a court decision on this three years later.
Three years and three months after Eintracht Frankfurt’s Europa League game at Olympique Marseille, the Hessians achieved a late legal success. According to the Bundesliga soccer team, an appeals court in Marseille ruled that the ban on all Eintracht fans from entering the area of the southern French port city was unlawful.
Together with the organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) and the national French fan association ANS, Eintracht had brought an action before an appeals court in Marseille. The latter had now found that the measure was “neither necessary nor proportionate” and therefore had to be declared “null and void”. Due to previous misconduct by Marseille fans, UEFA had issued a general ban on spectators for the game. “An unjust decision that punished tens of thousands for the behavior of a few. Nevertheless, many Eintracht fans had decided to follow their team to the south of France,” commented FSE and Eintracht Frankfurt.
The authorities reacted six days before the game with the decree in question to prevent Frankfurt fans without tickets from taking the planned trip to Marseille. “The evidence presented by the police prefect and the interior minister is insufficient to prove that the presence of supporters of Eintracht Frankfurt could lead to a serious disturbance of public order,” the court criticized the decision of the city administration.
“The ruling is certainly a first breakthrough for football fans across Europe who, despite all the legitimate security interests of municipalities and authorities, have the right to ensure that state measures remain lawful and do not violate fundamental rights to an obviously disproportionate degree,” commented Eintracht Justiziar Philipp Reschke the decision.