VfL Bochum is sealing itself off ahead of the first leg of the relegation play-off against Fortuna Düsseldorf. Fans are angry about the ticket situation.
VfL Bochum is sealing itself off. The 1:4 defeat against Werder Bremen and the upcoming relegation play-off against Fortuna Düsseldorf have prompted those responsible to take measures that have rarely been seen at Castroper Straße: All training sessions up until the first leg on Thursday (8.30pm, Sat1 and Sky) will take place behind closed doors. This was announced by the club on Whit Sunday.
The player replacement training session on Sunday was therefore the last in front of fans before the foundations for staying in the league are laid at the Ruhrstadion. And this despite the fact that players and managers have repeatedly emphasized how important fan support is to them.
Coach Heiko Butscher now wants to focus fully on the content of the sessions. He also has to get the poor performance out of his head psychologically. Not an easy task given the pressure that is now on the players. VfL Bochum now need players who fully embrace the situation.
It is quite possible that the sessions will be held in private because the squad is being reduced somewhat. Although Butscher emphasized on Sunday that he needs all players. After all, five players – Ivan Ordets, Keven Schlotterbeck, Moritz Broschinski, Bernardo and Maximilian Wittek – will all start the first leg of the relegation play-off with a pre-season injury. They all face a ban for the second leg in Düsseldorf if they receive another yellow card.
Huge anger among the fans
Meanwhile, some fans are not only angry about the defeat in Bremen and the team’s drop to the relegation places. The ticket situation for the first leg against Fortuna Düsseldorf also left one or two forum and social media users unhappy. “Perfect, pay again for a botched season. That’s what you like again. Would Vonovia perhaps like a few more liters of my blood or is it enough that I have to buy another ticket?” wrote one X user under the club’s post on how ticket sales work. “Pay extra with a season ticket, the people in charge probably haven’t heard the shot”, another
On Sunday evening, VfL Bochum announced that “the season ticket subscription does not apply to relegation matches”. This means that all season ticket holders at the Ruhrstadion will have to buy their tickets themselves in the online store – at the day ticket price.
A fact that many fans did not like. However, this is standard practice. It works in a similar way for additional matches such as the DFB Cup. Clubs such as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 also operate in this way. However, some fans would have liked it differently. “If you were big enough, the team and the club would take over the tickets,” said one X-user.