VfL Bochum is tightening up the “rules of the game” after the fence flag incident, but wants to continue to promote fan culture. There are new guidelines.
The fence flag problem on the last matchday continues to occupy those responsible at VfL Bochum – and it is now leading to consequences. Following the 45-minute interruption during the match against VfB Stuttgart, the club is “tightening up” the rules for away fans, but wants to continue to promote fan culture. The club announced this on Friday evening.
“VfL Bochum 1848 sees itself as a promoter of fan culture and provides the visiting fans at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion with an almost unrivaled amount of space for the presentation of fence flags,” the club wrote in a press release. “In return, VfL expects that the clearly defined guidelines will be adhered to in the interests of general safety and sport.”
VfL Bochum wants to set time limits for hanging up fence flags Although these have been in place for a long time, VfB Stuttgart (like all other visiting clubs) were informed of them well in advance of the match. Nevertheless, VfL Bochum will be changing a few things in future. “VfL Bochum 1848 will revise its fan information once again and will place it even more widely with the visiting club in future. This also includes the respective management. This will enable the visiting club to prepare even better for the situation and conditions at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion in relation to its own fans,” the club announced.
The Bundesliga club is also taking further measures. Flyers will be distributed to visiting fans before the matches, which will once again explicitly state what is permitted. There are also new visual representations of how and where the fence flags can be hung, time limits for hanging fence flags, an increase in the security service and a higher presence of VfL representatives as contact persons.
VfB Stuttgart fence flag posed a security risk What happened? During Bochum’s win against Stuttgart, at least one fence flag of the VfB Stuttgart Ultras was hanging above an escape gate through which fans from the stands of the Ruhrstadion could get onto the pitch in an emergency. The visiting fans had “used the duration of a briefing before the start of the first half to hang up banners in contravention of the rules and conceal them with a protest banner”, VfL announced.
This banner could have prevented an escape door from opening in an emergency. There had been a safety risk, which is why the organizers, i.e. Bochum, did not want to guarantee a safe continuation of the match. There was even a threat of the match being abandoned