Courtesy: X
During a German club football match on Saturday, November 30, the fans of FC Carl Zeiss Jena and BSG Chemie Leipzig were involved in a violent clash, which led to 79 people getting injured, including five stewards and 10 police officers. The fan violence began after the game which the hosts FC Carl Zeiss Jenna won in a one-sided manner by 5-0, following which the authorities used tear gas and baton to break up the incident, but not before a lot of people were hurt.
Prior to the game, as per the report from BBC Sport, the fans of FC Carl Zeiss Jena had conducted an unannounced march through the city, setting off pyrotechnics before the local police were forced to put a stop to it. During the game inside the Ernst-Abbe Sprotfeld, which was played in front of 7,224 fans, including around a thousand away fans from BSG Chemie Leipzig, the pyrotechnics were set off quite regularly by both sets of supporters, known to cause trouble in the league.
Watch the clips of fan violence during German club football match here:
FC Carl Zeiss Jena wishes those affected a speedy recovery: Official Statement
After getting the situation under control, the local police stated that they have filed 40 criminal and misdemeanour charges related to the fan violence at the Ernst-Abbe Sportfeld, as per the report from DW. In their official statement on the matter, FC Carl Zeiss Jena laid most of the blame on the visiting fans before stating, “Above all, FC Carl Zeiss Jena wishes those affected a speedy recovery. The club will get a comprehensive picture of what happened in the next few days.”
BSG Chemie Leipzig admitted in their official statement that the minority of their fans did stir the pot by throwing fireworks at the FC Carl Zeiss Jena fans during their clash. They further wrote, “We condemn violence in the form of physical confrontations, especially the use of pyrotechnics against people. This has no place at our football matches and will not be tolerated by us.”
