The Bundesliga home match of VfL Bochum against Borussia Mönchengladbach started ten minutes late. Flags of the guests covered an emergency exit.

When the fans of VfL Bochum were still singing loudly “Bochum” by Herbert Grönemeyer in the Ruhrstadion on Saturday, the stadium management suddenly turned down the music. Then at 3.27 p.m., shortly before the scheduled kick-off of the Bundesliga match against Borussia Mönchengladbach, “an important announcement” was made to the visiting fans: “Please take down the fence flags at the escape gates, otherwise the match will not start,” said the stadium announcer.

However, the Gladbach fans had still not reacted to the announcement at 3.34 pm. The two teams entered the pitch, but the stadium announcer once again referred to referee Felix Brych’s announcement that he would not blow the whistle until the flags at the security exits had been removed.

The Gladbach professionals had to plead with the fans, and it was not until ten minutes after the scheduled start of the match at 3:30 p.m. that the supporters relented and the game could start. In protest, the Borussia supporters initially stopped their support.

As if that were not enough, pyrotechnics were thrown onto the pitch when Gladbach took the lead. Again, Brych had to interrupt the game for a few minutes. As some of the smoke pots were thrown directly in front of their own block, a flag caught fire. The flames had to be extinguished by the fast-acting fire brigade. After a few minutes, the game could continue.

Click here for the live ticker

A large part of the organised fan scene then seemed to leave the stadium, leaving the first rows of the guest block empty. They no longer saw that Gladbach were already leading 3:0 at the break.