Second division club Hansa Rostock is drawing conclusions from the events at St. Pauli. The club wants to take tougher action against its own fans in future.
Destroyed toilets, thrown objects, an injured steward: A bitter result of the match between FC St. Pauli and Hansa Rostock last weekend. Damage amounting to a medium five-figure sum was caused in the visitors’ area. Hansa is now reacting to these events. Among other things, there is a ban on choreos for the club’s own fans.
The club also emphasises its non-political stance and distances itself from wallpapers and banners with discriminatory and right-wing slogans, which were recently seen at St. Pauli in connection with Hansa. The statements were “borderline violations and contravene our principles of tolerance, comradeship and community spirit as prescribed in our statutes”, Hansa stressed.
In an official statement, the second-division club expressed its overall concern. “Not only because of the recent events at St. Pauli, we are at a point where we must fundamentally ask ourselves whether we are still on the right course.” With these words, the Rostock team opened their statement, which also announced consequences for organised fans.
These measures have been decided after discussions with the DFB Control Committee, fan representatives and the Ministry of the Interior of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They include a ban on choreographies by the Hanseatic League until the end of the season.
New cameras and relocation of guest block planned
For the away games in Magdeburg and Paderborn, “the group quotas for all fan clubs, the fan scene and other organised fan groups will be completely cancelled”, according to the club.
After that, individual fan clubs will be given quotas again “on probation”. The club’s own security service will also accompany the Hanseatic League’s away games in the future. This is to prevent “vandalism in other stadiums, especially in the sanitary areas”.
Rostock also wants to react in terms of infrastructure. An inspection to install new cameras in Rostock’s Ostseestadion “already took place this week”, and a relocation of the guest block is also being discussed. However, cooperation in fan work is also to be strengthened with increased staff and events for exchange.
Hansa Rostock has been punished the most of all clubs for offences committed by their own fans in the current second division season. Eleven incidents involving Rostock have been punished to date (as of 4 March 2023), and with a total of €179,280 they had to transfer the highest fines to the DFB after Hannover 96 (€273,020). Most of the fines relate to the use of pyrotechnics, but discriminatory statements and banners were also punished.