Hamburger SV has complained about an alleged choreography ban at Schalke by the police. The authorities rejected the allegations.

Frustration had spread among Hamburger SV and its active fan base before the game at FC Schalke 04 on Saturday (8:30 p.m., RS live ticker). The reason: the Gelsenkirchen police have banned a planned choreography by HSV supporters.

“The reason given was that several clubs have already used pyrotechnics in the Schalke guest block this season and that a choreography could be misused for the use of pyrotechnics,” the northern club said in a statement on Thursday.

The police apparently see it differently. The authority also published a statement on Thursday in which it emphasized: “At no point did the Gelsenkirchen police justify the lack of consent by stating that several clubs had set off pyrotechnics in the Schalke guest block this season.”

Rather, the police had banned the choreography because the Hamburg team apparently wanted to raise a block flag. This suggests that “fans of Hamburger SV – as in several previous matches in the current season – ignite dangerous and therefore prohibited pyrotechnics under the cover of the block flag”.

A fan action without a block flag or a renunciation of pyrotechnics during the choreography, as promised by the club, could have led to permission. According to the police, the Hamburgers did not accept this proposal.

“The police’s offer of talks still stands,” says the responsible police director Andreas Morbach. He says that they are still interested in a dialogue with HSV. ‘Of course we want to enable fan culture. But that doesn’t include setting off pyrotechnics and endangering bystanders.’

The extent to which the authorities and the Hanseatic city can resolve their differences in time will become clear in the stadium on Saturday evening at the latest. There will be a choreography in any case: The Schalke supporters are planning an action that has also been approved.