On Thursday, the 9th of March, Eintracht Frankfurt confirmed via a Press Release that two days prior (or eight days before the return leg of their Champions League tie Napoli), they were informed by local authorities that visiting fans were prohibited from attending the match.
“The prefect of the city of Naples, in coordination with the Italian Ministry of the Interior, has issued a decree prohibiting SSC Napoli from selling guest tickets for the Champions League round of 16 against Eintracht.”
Contrary to popular belief, the decision was not made by SSC Napoli. The Ministry of the Interior (or what some might call the Ministry of Internal Affairs) is a department of the Italian government. Under the legislative decree of July 30, 1999, n° 300, one of the main functions of the Ministry of the Interior is the protection of public order and safety. The state police, the national fire brigade and the prefects all report to the Ministry of the Interior.
Prefects are heads of territorial offices of the government (formerly referred to as “prefectures”), whose role is to carry out the functions of the Ministry of the Interior within the specific regions they represent. Thus, amongst other things, the prefects have general responsibility for public order and safety within their respective regions. Nonetheless, Eintracht Frankfurt were not happy with the decision.
“This is a unique and competition-distorting process in European club football,” says Eintracht board member Philipp Reschke. “The fact that the games against Napoli would be classified as so-called high-risk games due to the rivalry and the overall circumstances, which of course also posed a challenge for the respective security officers on site, is not a new finding overnight, but was clear from the day of the draw. The course of the first leg was in line with expectations and overall fell well short of fears.”
Prior to the first leg in February, nine Frankfurt fans, who the Frankfurt police described as “well-known perpetrators of violence,” were taken into custody after “several attacks on Italian visiting fans by supporters from the Frankfurt high-risk fans’ scene.” However, the Frankfurt police were well-prepared.
“I can’t tell you the numbers involved but you won’t find a street corner in Frankfurt where there aren’t any officers,” police spokesman Thomas Hollerbach told The Associated Press. The victims of the attacks suffered only minor injuries and did not require medical attention.
Eintracht Frankfurt appealed the decision to the regional administrative courts (or Tribunale Amministrativo regionale, TAR for short), and much to their surprise, the court granted a temporary injunction. As a result of the decision, which was made on Saturday, March 11th, SSC Napoli were required to provide the German club with 2,700 guest tickets.
The following day, the Prefect of Naples, Claudio Palomba, issued a new decree, banning only residents of Frankfurt from attending the match, contrary to the original ban on all residents of Germany. Though the concept may be foreign to foreigners, it’s consistent with recent decisions made in Italy.
In January, Napoli and Roma ultras collided at a service centre in Badia al Pino, close to Arrezzo. The altercation between the two sets of traveling supporters – Napoli supporters were traveling to Genoa for Sampdoria-Napoli while Roma supporters were traveling to Milan for AC Milan-Roma – was premeditated and resulted in a 50-minute closure of the A1 Highway. Consequently, the Ministry of the Interior banned all residents of the provinces of Naples and Rome from attending away matches for two months.
According to Italian media, the decision of the Prefect of Naples was rooted in concerns over the gemellaggi or twinnings between the respective ultra groups: Eintracht Frankfurt have a gemellaggio with Atalanta while Napoli have a gemellaggio with Red Star Belgrade. Though consistent with previous decisions, the ban on residents of Frankfurt showed a clear lack of understanding of the demographics of Eintracht Frankfurt’s fanbase.
“The new decree is no less illegal in content and justification and also completely unsuitable because two thirds of our fans are known to come from the Rhine-Main region and not from Frankfurt,” Reschke noted. “There could be countless ways to actually circumvent this decree and bring some of our fans into the stadium.”
Reschke was not wrong. On the eve of the match, hundreds of Eintracht Frankfurt fans poured into the city of Naples, after the club had already rejected the 2,700 guest ticket allotment. Numerous videos have surfaced on social media of Eintracht Frankfurt supporters, together with Atalanta ultras, congregating throughout the city. After Italian media reported a few attempted attacks by Napoli ultras on the visitors, altercations ensured between Frankfurt supporters and local police. While there appears to be a huge contingent of local police following the visitors around, they were unable to hold off the riots, perhaps justifying the original decision.
Eintracht Frankfurt appealed the new decree as well, but on Monday, three days before the match, the regional administrative court upheld the decision of the Prefect of Naples. Meanwhile, Reschke has pledged continue to pursue the case legally, as a matter of principle. “We will still present an administrative case to challenge the decision of the Prefecture, even if the judgment will be pronounced in three years. These are principles and rights of fans, not just for us, but for fans across the continent.”
On Tuesday, UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin revealed that UEFA officially supports Eintracht Frankfurt’s legal action against the Italian public safety authorities. “This situation is intolerable and we urgently need to do something about it, because the decision is absolutely wrong,” Čeferin told German television broadcaster ZDF. “We have to say ‘if something like this happens, then the clubs won’t play there’. It’s simple, we’ll change the rules.”
Curiously, Čeferin did not comment when Napoli fans were banned from attending their Group Stage match against Rangers in Scotland. While the ban was understandable – police resources were stretched in the wake of Queen Elizabeth’s passing – the venue was not changed. Napoli supporters were refunded the price of their tickets, but many were left out of pocket for airfare and hotel accommodations.
Unless a change to a neutral venue is made well in advance, traveling supporters would still be left out of pocket. Moreover, as the A1 incident and the 2017 passing of Ciro Esposito demonstrate, playing at a neutral venue does not guarantee that ultra fan groups will not clash. Esposito was involved in altercations with Roma ultras ahead of Napoli’s Coppa Italia final against Fiorentina at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. The hope now is that everyone returns home unharmed.
