On Saturday, fans of Borussia Dortmund and Hamburger SV clashed at Mannheim Central Station on their way to their clubs’ respective away games in Freiburg and Elversberg. According to the Federal Police, there were “physical altercations”.
According to a press release by the Federal Police, the violent incidents took place at Mannheim Central Station at around 10:35 on Saturday morning. According to the press release, verbal provocations between about 200 BVB supporters and 80 HSV supporters took place in a subway and degenerated into a brawl.
According to official reports, the federal and state police forces were able to break up the groups with batons and pepper spray. No injuries were reportedly sustained. The fans then continued their journey to Freiburg and Elversberg.
However, a good hour and a half later, the onward journey ended for many Dortmund supporters. At Herbolzheim station in the Emmendingen district, the police stopped the fan train to establish the identity of the BVB fans involved. The reason given by the federal police was the suspicion of “serious breach of the peace and bodily harm”.
Parts of the BVB fans have to go home
After the measure, the train continued its journey without the football fans. Fanhilfe Dortmund also confirmed on X, formerly Twitter, that the fans affected by the measure had to travel home. Apparently, BVB Ultras were also among the supporters who could not continue their journey to Freiburg and were thus missing from the guest block. The Federal Police also announced that they would evaluate video recordings in order to obtain further details about the course of events and the persons involved.
BVB finally celebrated a 4:2 victory at Sport-Club on Matchday 4 of the Bundesliga. Meanwhile, HSV was beaten 1:2 by promoted SV Elversberg in the 2nd Bundesliga.
