GIt is seven kilometers northeast of the city center. Naples Airport, which is called Capodichino, can be reached by bus in around 20 minutes. Seven landings of machines from Germany were planned for Tuesday at the airport with its two terminals. According to Italian media, the passengers had to be prepared to be “particularly monitored”.
It is just one of many measures relating to the round of 16 second leg of the Champions League between SSC Napoli and Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday evening (9 p.m., in the sports ticker of the WELT) takes place – and during which, according to the prefecture of Naples, there is a ticket ban for Eintracht fans from the city of Frankfurt.
With the decision of the Italian Ministry of the Interior in Rome not to sell tickets to all supporters from Germany, an absurd back and forth had taken its course in the past week. After an urgent application by Eintracht was successful in court and the ban was declared invalid, the city of Naples on Sunday issued a ticket ban exclusively for supporters from the city of Frankfurt. A complaint from Eintracht, which had already announced that it would waive the away contingent of 2,700 tickets, was then dismissed.
In Italy it is now feared that violent Eintracht supporters will travel to the city at the foot of Mount Vesuvius to riot despite the measures and without tickets. On Tuesday evening, the first pictures and videos showing Eintracht fans in Naples appeared on social networks.
In the first leg of the round of 16 in Frankfurt, which ended 0-2 on February 21, Italian fans were attacked – according to the Italian media, some of them are now looking for revenge. In addition, there are concerns that Frankfurt fans will join forces with those of Atalanta Bergamo in northern Italy with whom they have a fan friendship – with the fans of Naples, those of Atalanta are enemies. The “Gazzetta dello Sport” also wrote about fears that Serbian hooligans from Red Star Belgrade could come to support the Napoli ultras.
Fans had already booked hotels and flights
The fact that the exclusion now also affects many Eintracht fans who wanted to travel to Naples only to watch the game and support their team is only a side issue given the feared riots: many supporters had flights and hotels immediately after the draw in the November 2022 booked, six charter flights alone have been canceled in the past few days.
“The actions of the Italian authorities in the context of international games are absolutely unusual, many fear a precedent. The result is not more security, but great uncertainty on all sides, not only at the Eintracht Frankfurt club, but especially among the many fans who have been planning this trip for months and booked flights, trains and hotels,” said Michael Gabriel, head of the Coordination Office for Fan Projects (KOS), on WELT request.
Dario Minden from the board of the Frankfurt fan department considers the ticket ban for Eintracht supporters from the city of Frankfurt to be wrong and counterproductive from a security perspective. “The safest thing is always to have people in a guest block. Whether you think that’s good or bad: Realistically, despite all efforts, Naples will not be a Frankfurt-free zone,” said Minden: “The danger situation has increased due to the supposed security measures.”
According to the official reading, Frankfurt’s fans will not be in Naples’ stadium (right) and can probably only enjoy the view of Vesuvius (back left).
Quelle: LightRocket via Getty Images/Marco Cantile
Minden fears that the case could have consequences beyond the game on Wednesday. “Many in the football business probably don’t yet understand the scope of what Naples is pulling off Eintracht Frankfurt. That endangers the whole European traveling culture when it’s so easy to exclude visiting fans,” he said. “Ultimately, all the magic of the European Cup goes to the dogs.”
UEFA President condemns fan exclusion
The European association UEFA, after all the organizer of the competition, which is so financially lucrative for it, took a position on the evening before the game. “It’s not okay for the Italian authorities to decide that German fans are not allowed. The authorities’ decision is absolutely incorrect,” said UEFA President Aleksandar Ceferin on ZDF.
Without his supporters behind him, who caused a worldwide sensation last year when 30,000 fans traveled to the game at FC Barcelona and supported the team there, the Europa League winners still have to do everything in their power to catch up to catch up with the first leg. “The fact that we have to play in Naples without our fans is a clear competitive disadvantage. There’s nothing to do with that, but it doesn’t help now. We have to try to get through without them to give them the quarter-finals,” said Markus Krösche, Managing Director Sport, the WELT.
It won’t be easy, they know that in Frankfurt not only because of the result from the first leg: Napoli are currently leaders in the Italian Seria A and one of the best teams in European football.
Eintracht, on the other hand, is struggling a bit at the moment, which was not only evident last weekend when there was a 1-1 draw at home against VfB Stuttgart, who were threatened with relegation. It was the sixth competitive game in a row that you could not win. As against Stuttgart, the team coached by Oliver Glasner will have to do without Jesper Lindström in Naples, and top striker Randal Kolo Muani is also suspended.
Lindstrom is out for several weeks after injuring his ankle while training last week. The playful ease with which Eintracht was able to convince in the first half of the season and played the best first half of the season in the club’s history, also thanks to the prominent summer signing Mario Götze, is a bit gone. It is quite possible that one or the other background noise is also responsible for this.
Speculations surrounding Kolo Muani’s departure
For weeks there has been speculation about a possible departure of Kolo Muani, who came from Nantes on a free transfer in 2022 and is in demand at top international clubs. As far as the competition’s interest in their own highly qualified staff is concerned, they are well acquainted with Frankfurt. In 2019, for example, the Bundesliga club lost three strong offensive forces at once in Luka Jovic, Ante Rebic and Sebastien Haller – known at the time as the “Buffalo Herd”. However, the departures flushed a lot of money into the coffers, which the club partially reinvested. In addition to Kolo Muani, the future of Daichi Kamada and Evan N’Dicka at Eintracht is still unclear.
But the club is not only threatened with bloodletting in the team – also in the management floor. Board spokesman Axel Hellmann, who since December 2022 with Oliver Leki from SC Freiburg on an interim basis until the end of June as a double head of the German Football League (DFL) after Donata Hopfen had resigned from her position as DFL boss, is apparently considered a candidate for the sole position Chairman of the DFL.
Hellmann has gained in profile in recent years, especially after the departure of sports director Fredi Bobic, who switched to Hertha BSC in 2021 and was surprisingly fired there in January. Hellmann, 51 years old, is considered to be well connected in sports, politics and business. He enjoys an excellent reputation and his down-to-earth attitude is well received – even by his followers.