The first match of the season has been cancelled on matchday 8. The match between Bocholt and Fortuna Köln had to be cancelled due to an unplayable pitch. The clubs are angry.
The Regionalliga West has its first match cancellation of the 22/23 season. The match between 1. FC Bocholt and Fortuna Köln was cancelled shortly before kick-off.
The reason is the persistent rainfall over the past few days, which has made kick-off impossible. As RevierSport learned, 1. FC Bocholt was informed by the city of Bocholt, which owns the grass pitch at Hünting, at 11.47 am that the pitch would be closed. 1 FC Bocholt then passed on the information to the league manager. The latter informed Fortuna Köln. However, the visitors had already arrived at the Bocholt stadium grounds at around 12 noon and were very angry about the cancellation of the match.
For a short time, it was said on the Bocholt Instagram page that the referee would make the final decision about a kick-off. Fortuna’s sporting director Matthias Mink picked up the phone and expressed his surprise to RS: “There was no referee on site at all. We are angry about the cancellation. I don’t want to say any more about it because it’s a pending case for me now. “
“Pending proceedings”, what Mink means by that should be clear. Fortuna will probably try to appeal to the association against this cancellation.
The Bocholt team, in the person of press spokesman Benjamin Kappelhoff, can understand the Cologne team’s anger. Kappelhoff says: “We would also have liked to play. I can understand the anger of Fortunen. We also regret the decision of the city of Bocholt, who own the pitch. Ultimately, however, our hands are tied despite our lack of understanding. We tried everything to change the city’s mind. At around 1.25 p.m., however, we were finally certain that the game would not be played today – and communicated it accordingly.”
While Fortuna Cologne returned home to the Rhineland in frustration, Bocholt coach Marcus John trained with his team on the artificial pitch.
It has not yet been decided when the match will be made up for.