“Where do we live?”
Max Kruse complains about the police operation
08/09/2022, 1:55 p.m
From a sporting point of view, Werder Bremen’s return to the Bundesliga is satisfactory, but there is trouble in the game at VfL Wolfsburg: a police operation puts them at a “competitive disadvantage”. And in the aftermath, both clubs surprisingly agree.
Max Kruse from Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg has complained about the police’s actions against Bremen fans and showed understanding for the Werder Ultras who had left. “What the police did to the Werder fans is an absolute absurdity,” he said on Instagram.
“Where do we live?” asked the 34-year-old. “I think it’s completely okay that they resisted,” he said in the direction of the Werder Ultras, who had not shown up for the game between Wolfsburg and Bremen last Saturday in protest. “We live in a free world and just because I’m going somewhere, I don’t have to show my ID and say who I am,” Kruse added.
The fans had previously found the searches and personal details of the officials at Wolfsburg’s main station disproportionate – and had not shown up for the game out of protest and, according to the club, had made their way back to Bremen. The club complained via Twitter that this put them at a “competitive disadvantage”.
Videos on social media show fans surrounded by several police officers in front of emergency vehicles and receiving the announcement from the officers that the supporters are not allowed to stay in the city area and are only allowed to go to the stadium. The Wolfsburg police announced on Sunday that Bremen fans should have been allowed to stay in the city area. The action was intended to prevent “clashes between fan groups,” the authority wrote on Twitter.
Those responsible for both clubs, who had previously classified the encounter as uncritical, grumbled afterwards: “I don’t understand it. I don’t know who decided it and I don’t know who wanted to do it, but I think so a cheek,” said Werder’s professional football manager Clemens Fritz. He spoke of an “absolute absurdity”. Jörg Schmadtke, Managing Director of VfL Wolfsburg, was even more specific: “If this gait of the officers is standard, that calls the entire police work into question for me. It can’t be that the police intervene before you’ve even done anything,” he told the “Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung”. “I looked at the pictures of the mission. I’m dismayed. It’s a disgrace for Wolfsburg as a football location.”