Ten years after the “Shame of Zurich” is not a bit smarter
The “Shame of Zurich” occurred a decade ago. After the tragedy of that time, a reaction was requested from the parties. But not much has happened, as the incidents on Saturday evening relentlessly reveal.
On October 2nd, 2011, the Zurich Derby will see wild scenes. In the final phase, die GC fans present a “mocking homage” in their curve with a stolen flag from an FCZ fan club. A gross foul in the football fan scene. Some FCZ supporters cannot offer the provocation and storm towards the opposing corner.
An FCZ fan also throws a flare into the GC curve. Then it comes to wild brawls on the east stand, where all neutral spectators and families are present. The security service is completely overwhelmed by the out-of-control situation. In the end, the referee has no choice but to stop the game at short notice. The riots claim several injuries.
The required reactions
The shock in the people who reacted was deep, like a flashback «Watson» shows. GC President Roland Leutwiler wanted to put the pictures of the perpetrator who threw the flare into the audience immediately on the Internet. “And sometimes I really have a real problem with the fact that our jurisdiction is not like that, that you can’t take these guys by the nose, put the pictures on the Internet and judge them immediately – that’s absolutely beyond …” he said . The perpetrator actually turned to the police later when pictures of him were circulating on the Internet. In 2015 he was sentenced to a conditional imprisonment of 13 months and a fine of 500 francs.
FCZ President Ancillo Canepa said: «I slowly shit, when I say it in German. God knows it is difficult to run a professional football club, especially with the general conditions in the city of Zurich. And then you have to deal with something like that. ” The clubs let themselves be “danced on the nose by a minority,” quoted him as saying NZZ. The professional players’ association SAFP demanded loudly «Kicker» as an immediate measure already «police presence inside the stadium as well as the immediate intervention of the police during the game».
“Zero tolerance is required when dealing with pyros and petards,” said Zurich city councilor Gerold Lauber to the Keystone-sda news agency. He also made the clubs an obligation to support zero tolerance. Structural measures such as increased delimitation of the sectors in the Letzigrund should generate additional security.
“I would be in the stadium for the police. In Germany you do it that way and you have success, ”said Christian Wenger from the FCZ fan club in 1896 “20 minutes”. Many exponents also advocated personalized tickets.
The south curve (FCZ) also reacts to the incidents with a communiqué. One wants to exercise a little restraint with pyrotechnics in the future. However, one does not want to do without it entirely. “It is not the use of pyrotechnics, but its misuse that harms the clubs,” says the south curve.
The current implementations
The Zurich Derby is on the program again on Saturday evening. The focus is not on the beautiful game (3: 3), but on the new edition of the “Schande von Zürich”. Some fans of the FCZ stormed onto the plastic track around the lawn and threw fireworks into the GC fan sector. Although there were officially no injuries this time, the statements are reminiscent of earlier times.
“It’s disappointing that a fair and exciting derby had to end like this. These so-called fans harm themselves, the curve and FC Zurich, ”said FCZ President Canepa. The SFL wrote that it would initiate proceedings and expect “that the perpetrators will be identified and excluded from football games for a long time”.
During the big waves in the Corona crisis, the games in this country were played in front of empty stands. The mood was dreary, but at least security was no longer an issue. Politicians in Valais nevertheless seized the opportunity: In Sion, personalized tickets were introduced this summer under the guise of the pandemic and closed to the guests. in between, however, the Valais fell back – also under pressure from Sion President Christian Constantin.
The Letzigrund belongs to the city of Zurich, but GC and the FCZ, as tenants and organizers, are responsible for security. You won’t see any police presence inside the stadium either. Bengalos and Co. have been banned for a long time, but the use of pyrotechnics has not yet been stopped. On Saturday evening, at least one police representative had to make fluent lines during the game in order to keep track of the number of ignited fireworks. But it becomes particularly dangerous when flares are used as projectiles. Video cameras are used in the Swiss stadiums to identify such perpetrators. Nevertheless, it is apparently difficult to identify the most masked people.
A handy instrument are the stadium or rayon bans, which the authorities insiders are applying more and more frequently. However, there are still gaps in the security system at certain stages. The almost 100 large FCZ group also used a ladder, for example, to quickly disappear into their curve in anonymity.
The vast majority of political officials and football officials agree. In theory, the necessary legal and technical instruments are all available to identify fallible viewers. But then there is a lack of implementation. In practice, some clubs still find it difficult to lock violent fans – who are still clearly in the minority – from their stadiums. Self-cleaning in your own curve is difficult to initiate.
The starting position has not changed much in the last decade. The current exponents from all camps are also required so that such incidents no longer occur. Until recently, the “Shame of Zurich” seemed a relic from the past – as the Swiss football scene has now painfully witnessed, the old evil spirits are not entirely banished.