A German politician has said the German Cup final between Bayern Munich and VfB Stuttgart should have been abandoned after fans from both camps made use of large amounts of pyrotechnics during the second half.
The May 23 match in Berlin's Olympic Stadium was halted for a few minutes due to the smoke but it was then completed, with Bayern winning 3-0. Munich and Stuttgart fans had set off the pyrotechnics after chants against the domestic federation DFB.
Herbert Reul, the interior minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, said told Der Sgiegel magazine he was “stunned” that referee Sven Jablonski allowed the match to continue.
“I would have been in favour of calling off the match because some people only understand in this way that they have crossed a line,” Reul said.
Reul was speaking ahead of Wednesday's start of a conference of interior ministers from the 16 German states, with safety and security at football matches part of the agenda. Der Spiegel said that concrete measures are not named.
The issue was also discussed at the last conference, with ministers saying they want to be stricter on violence in football stadiums.
But there were no concrete results in sensitive areas such as personalised tickets, facial recognition, ID checks and surveillance with the help of Artificial Intelligence. Fans had protested against them for weeks.
“I don’t get the impression that we’re really making any progress,” Reul said. “There is a crystal-clear ban on pyrotechnics, so clubs must be obliged to step up their checks.”
