Riots in Nice: Fan falls from the stands – eleven injured in the Cologne Conference League game
Created: 09/09/2022, 05:50
By: Antonio Jose Riether
Riots between the two fan camps before the conference league game.
© Ralf Treese/imago
Violent clashes immediately before 1. FC Köln's Conference League game in Nice caused the kick-off to be delayed and several injured.
Videos show the brutal scenes.
Update, 9:39 p.m .:
The first group game of 1. FC Köln is over.
The game at OGC Nice kicked off 50 minutes late, and the game ended 1-1 after Cologne led at half-time.
The game was overshadowed by the riots before the start of the game, before and during the game many videos from the stadium were made public, showing violent scenes of violence.
Bengalos were thrown into opposing blocks, objects of all kinds were used as weapons in the physical fights.
Eleven injured in a conference league game - the fallen fan apparently is not from Cologne
A completely different video from the Cologne fan block is now also doing the rounds.
When the hooded Cologne troublemakers returned to the guest block, they were greeted with anything but a positive response from the rest of the supporters.
"We're from Cologne and you're not," the peaceful fans shouted at the rioters.
The supporters in Cologne were also apparently bewildered by the sometimes bloody clashes.
The number of injured is also known, the AFP news agency reports that eleven people were injured.
A man from Cologne is said to have been injured with a knife.
The fan who fell from a height of five meters from the middle tier is - contrary to what was initially assumed - not from Cologne, but a fan from Paris, who was also in the away block.
This was announced by a spokesman for the agency.
More than 8,000 Cologne fans were in Nice on Thursday evening, and several hundred made it into the home fans' area.
Supporters of Paris Saint-Germain were also among the rioters, and the capital's fan scene maintains a good relationship with the Cologne Ultras.
Riots in Nice: The Cologne fans attacked the home block.
© dpa
Ultras cause scenes of violence in Nice against Cologne - Cologne managing director comments
Update, 8:15 p.m .:
For a long time it was assumed that a fan had pushed or even kicked another from the upper tier to the lower stand.
A recent video that shared the
image
now provides information.
The fan stumbled over the parapet after a - probably accidental - nudge on his arm when he wanted to jump over a Bengalo.
As a result, he fell about five meters in depth.
Update, 7.46 p.m .:
As announced, the game between OGC Nice and Cologne kicked off at 7.40 p.m., despite the violent riots before the game.
Christian Keller, sporting director of 1. FC Köln, tried to sum up the excesses of violence, which he described as "perverse", to RTL.
"The information I have is that hooligans from Nice were the first to break into our fan block.
Then there are hooligans from our fan block, most of whom are supposed to be from Paris and were dressed up as people from Cologne, and of course a few from Cologne follow,” said the 43-year-old.
One must hit the provocateurs without any compromise and with full force, said Keller.
"You must never, ever come back to the stadium, at least not to Cologne."
Riots at the Conference League game between Cologne and Nice
First report from September 8th:
Nice – Around eight thousand fans of 1. FC Köln celebrated peacefully and exuberantly on the streets of Nice on Thursday afternoon.
But in the evening the situation in the stadium escalated, serious riots are now causing the kick-off of the Conference League game at OGC Nice, which should have kicked off at 6.45 p.m., to be postponed.
Many videos circulated on Twitter during the game that showed scenes of gross violence.
What happened?
50 hooded Cologne supporters had attacked the French block, the result was a violent confrontation.
According to information from the dpa and television pictures, the fan camps even threw lit bengalos, e-scooters, chairs and tables at each other.
A video shows a fan being pushed down from the upper tier to the lower tier, apparently by another supporter.
The attacks lasted about five minutes before the police got the situation under control.
“We wanted to celebrate a football festival with you.
We still want to play, but of course we can't approve of that," said Cologne captain Jonas Hector, who stepped up to the microphone.
"We worked our ass off to qualify for the Conference League and we want to play that too.
Please keep quiet, we want to celebrate football here and not have violence," he added.
Nice captain and ex-FC Bayern professional Dante also tried to influence the fans.
The kick-off in the conference league game is postponed by almost an hour
According to UEFA, the new kick-off time is 7.40 p.m., as announced shortly before 7 p.m.
In the event of another incident, the game will be stopped immediately, according to the stadium announcement.
There is still no information on people arrested, according to the "heute journal" there should be a seriously injured fan.
(ajr)
