RB Leipzig has been successful in its appeal against a fine imposed by the German Football Association (DFB) and now only has to pay half.
In the first instance, the DFB Sports Court fined RB Leipzig 36,900 euros for various pyro incidents by its fans during the Cup final against Eintracht Frankfurt on 3 June. The cup winners had appealed against the decision and at the same time made accusations against the association and the police. At the oral hearing due to the appeal, the sports court halved the fine on Monday. At the same time, it supported the club’s demand for more assistance in prevention and the investigation of perpetrators.
According to the DFB, spectators in the RB block had lit a total of eight smoke pots and five flashers and fired a rocket in the direction of the pitch during the cup final (2:0). Due to the smoke on the pitch, kick-off for the second half was delayed by around three minutes.
RB criticism of police and DFB
RB Leipzig had primarily blamed the DFB for the aberrations in the stands. Specifically, the club criticised inadequate admission controls by the security service commissioned by the association as organiser. The DFB Sports Court followed this argumentation and ruled that in the future, if such a service is offered, the participating clubs’ stewards should also be deployed to provide support.
RB Leipzig had also complained that the police and DFB were blocking the club’s efforts to establish the identities of the perpetrators because they were denied access to recorded video material. Here, too, the DFB Sports Court followed the club’s argumentation. It called on the association to develop a model by the end of the year in which the conditions under data protection law are created so that the relevant video material can be viewed.
In the specific case, these decisions only apply to the DFB Cup final with the DFB as host. Whether and to what extent this will have an impact on matches in which the host club is also the organiser remains to be seen.