The Westphalia Cup match between Rot-Weiß Erlinghausen and SpVgg Erkenschwick is to take place without spectators. The guest does not want to accept this.

The Westphalian Football and Athletics Association (FLVW) has decided that the quarter-final match between the regional league team Rot-Weiß Erlinghausen and SpVgg Erkenschwick on 19 November in the Diemelstadion in Marsberg will be played without spectators. In doing so, he complied with a request from the host. This had been triggered by the announcement that category C fans of the Westfalenliga team would be travelling to the match.

In Erkenschwick, the decision of the association has caused consternation. We asked. “It is true that we have informed Erlinghausen that a) we expect a good number of spectators to accompany us and b) one or two old hands will also be there,” Erkenschwick’s second chairman Robert Mazurek explained to RevierSport. “But it’s by no means the case that we’ll be invading Sauerland with a horde that will lay waste to everything there.”

The decision of the FLVW is correspondingly stunned. In the meantime, it is also clear that they will not simply accept it. “We are now waiting for the written justification from the association and then we will take legal action,” says Mazurek. “We will definitely take civil action against it if necessary, should the path via the sports court not lead to success.”

He adds that they owe that to themselves, to the Erkenschwick fans, but also to football as a whole. “If this decision remains in place, the door will soon be opened to chance in the cup competitions, but also in the top leagues or Westphalia leagues, as to whether a match is played with spectators or not.” Because even there, there are often some old-school fans among the spectators who can’t behave. Mazurek: “Then there will soon be few games with fans. “

Because of this and because the club had been certified as having a certain potential danger after the Münster game, Erlinghausen had been informed. But this was all manageable. They had also reckoned with conditions, but not with having to do without support.

The association argued that the sporting character of the game should be the main focus. But the spectators are also a factor. In 2017, the team gave up home rights to a cup match against Preußen Münster because it did not feel able to provide security at the time. “The fact is: there are no winners in this arrangement. Not the association, not Erkenschwick, not Erlinghausen and certainly not football in general,” Mazurek says.