Madness in the 2. Bundesliga, fans fought with police in the stands during the Hannover vs. St. Pauli match

Scenes that definitely don’t belong in football. Unfortunately, these were exactly what was seen in the stands during the match between Hannover 96 and St. Pauli in the 2nd leg of the Europa League. Bundesliga, the match was abandoned.

13. round 2 of Germany’s top league competition brought a seemingly unremarkable contest between Hamburg’s St. Pauli and Hannover 96. The match didn’t produce a single goal, but it will be talked about nonetheless.

Around the 70th minute, the visiting supporters made their presence known and the Hannover ultras started to show signs of aggression by throwing various objects on the pitch.

The local police tried to calm the situation down, without direct contact with the fans yet. However, the use of tear gas rather set the rioters off.

The turning point came at around the 75th minute of the match. According to the German media, an “unwelcome guest” entered the away sector and tried to steal the club’s logo banner from the aggressive fans.

This intrusion caused a chain reaction of aggressive reactions, which Hamburg police decided to take immediate action against. This led to a fierce clash between riot police and several dozen members of the ultras.

Some 32 people were injured during the clash, including 15 fans and 17 members of the police force, and at least one supporter was taken to hospital. One member of the police force also had to be hospitalized. The latter was said to have a broken leg after vandals hit him with a board from the pavement.

Hamburg police are still not giving the exact number of arrests, but they had 270 members ready for the match.

“We were especially prepared for this match. There are well-known hostilities and mutual intolerance between the two fan camps,” commented police spokesman Sören Zimbal.

Source: Bild, Youtube, Twitter/X