UEFA announced on Friday that will be investigating the problems caused by the crowd last night at Arsenal’s 3-1 win over FC Koln. An estimated 20,000 FC Koln supporters came over from Germany to the Emirates Thursday night, despite only 3,000 actually having tickets. Reports indicate that 10,000 got in.
Obviously the Cologne based club’s fans where extremely amped about the team’s first European campaign in two and a half decades.
Unfortunately, the excitement and enthusiasm turned into hostility, as things got very unruly in a hurry. There was so much disorder that the match kickoff time had to be delayed an hour. Of course, it’s just a small group of hooligans acting up, as most of the 20,000 was peaceful and orderly.
Take a look at some of the video out there from pre FC Koln vs Arsenal yesterday:
https://twitter.com/PintsandPyro/status/908400445848158208
20,000 FC Koln fans in London for tonight's game against Arsenal! Incredible support ?????? https://t.co/Tly6kYnbTf
— Terrace Images (@TerraceImages) September 14, 2017
Inside the stadium, the FC Koln supporters made the Gunners feel like this was a road match.
The FC Koln fans have taken over the home end as well as the away end…
? @gabrielclarke05pic.twitter.com/GrdWPhI464
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) September 14, 2017
Arsenal released a club statement, in which they revealed how they’re working with UEFA on this matter. It reads: “We would like to stress that fan safety was always our paramount concern and informed all decisions made.
“We worked in full consultation with police and Uefa officials on the night and in advance of the game and had taken extensive steps in advance to prevent tickets being sold to visiting supporters.
“This included a number of measures including ensuring no tickets were sold via general sale and that no red memberships purchased after the draw were able to be used to get tickets in the home end for this match. We also worked with our colleagues at Köln to stop supporters travelling without match tickets.”
“The 3,000 tickets issued to Köln fans was in line with competition rules but it is clear many more visiting fans arrived, causing significant congestion and disturbance outside the stadium before kick-off. Many tickets were sold through touts and this is very disappointing. We have launched a full review into the circumstances surrounding the game and will ensure any lessons that can be learned are used in the future.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now and Minute Media. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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