* Die wahrheit

And so hats off to Red Kaos Zwickau for at least the attempt to get some fluids to the Dynamo fans … and we really hope the police had good reason for stopping the aid mission.

Although we doubt it…….

BILD Leipzig have calculated the cost of the police operation for the RB Leipzig Markranstädt FSV Zwickau match and decided it cost Euro 60,000.

„The costs are paid by the public purse, at the end of the day we’re guaranteeing peace and order. But we hope that in the future the associations will contribute“ says Police Trades Union representative Matthias Kubitz.

We will never tire off repeating the following;

* The police decide on the strategy for each football match, and so cannot complain about the costs when, as on Sunday, so much of the costs were obviously unnecessary.

* The most important costs in association with the controlling of football crowds occur in advance, in the talks with the clubs and fan groups.

* Problems are most likely to occur after a match during the march back to the train station

* The vast majority of violent incidents on match days are between police and fans and not fan-fan violence

And specific to Markranstädt on Sunday:

*The water cannons could not have been used – there is no space in front of the Stadion am Bad where they could have been successfully and usefully operated. We also doubt if they could even get down Am Stadtbad. And if it had come to an attack on the Zwickau fans in the forest or in the park around the old folks home…what then? The water cannon were only there  because RBL -M and the Leipzig media made such a fuss about events in Jena, because Klaus Reichenbach completely over reacted and because all somehow related events in Jena with too few police.  Which is incredible when not negligent.

*The only risk of disorder in Markranstädt on Sunday came from LOK fans looking for trouble with Zwickau fans. Such can most effectively be avoided in advance through competent police work. Now there were a few „decent“ LOKies there on Sunday, but all are known, all were well watched, and all knew that. And as with last years Markranstädt – Zwickau fixture, when there were an awful lot more violent LOkies in Markranstädt, the Zwickau fans were unlikely to be provoked by LOK. Anyone who has followed the development in Zwickau over recent years knows that violence on Sunday was never a real possibility.

* There originated from sections of the Zwicaku fan block several episodes of spitting – for all in the direction of Red Bull’s Stefan Schumann. Not only did RBL’s security fail to stop these, but no one from BILD Leipzig saw fit to mention them…. Weird that

As we said yesterday self-fulfilling prophecy’s are a staple diet of tabloid newspapers – but that doesn’t make it any more acceptable or palatable.

And as we also said, when on such an inhumanely warm day the police feel the need to send water cannons to a match – please considering using them to cool the fans down. At least then the money wont be completely wasted.

Water Cannons in Markranstädt - would have been better employed to cool the crowd

„Ihr seid die neuen Juden“

Der Vorfall ereignete sich bereits am Samstag zu Beginn der Halbzeitpause der Partie Motor II gegen Roter Stern Halle, wurde aber erst gestern bekannt. Und hat möglicherweise einen rechtsextremen Hintergrund. Ein Mitglied von „Roter Stern“ berichtet jedenfalls, Anhänger des linksalternativen Klubs seien von den Schlägern beschimpft worden. Ausrufe wie „Ihr seid Zecken, ihr seid die neuen Juden, wir machen euch weg“, seien gefallen. Dann hätten einige aus der acht bis zehn Mann starken Gruppe ohne Vorwarnung angegriffen. Mitten im Publikum, zu dem auch Familien mit kleinen Kindern zählten.

Die Täter sollen Quarzsandhandschuhe getragen haben, die wegen ihrer harten Füllung beim Zuschlagen besonders schwere Verletzungen verursachen. Die Polizei bestätigt das allerdings nicht, sie geht nach ihren bisherigen Ermittlungen auch nicht von einem rechten Überfall aus. „Wir haben nichts, was darauf hindeutet“, sagt ein Sprecher.

Im Gegenteil: Die beiden Männer, die nach dem Angriff festgenommen wurden und als Tatverdächtige gelten, seien bisher „politisch nicht in Erscheinung getreten“. Dafür sind der 19- und der 20-Jährige laut Polizei auch bei anderen Fußballspielen im Raum Halle schon durch Gewalt aufgefallen – und in der Gewalttäter-Datei Sport erfasst. Der jüngere von beiden hat nach Polizeiangaben sogar ein bundesweites Stadionverbot. Das allerdings gilt nur bis zur vierten Liga, in diesem Fall also nicht.

Tendenz nach rechts

Der Verein „Roter Stern“ bleibt indes bei seiner Darstellung: „Wir haben unter unseren Fans keine Hooligans“, sagt ein Mitglied, „die haben also sicher nicht nur jemanden gesucht, um sich zu prügeln.“ Vielmehr sei der Überfall eine geplante Aktion gewesen. Und es sei kein Geheimnis, dass die Hooligan-Szene nach rechts tendiere.

Unterdessen wehrt sich „Motor“-Trainer Jörg Machatsch gegen Vorwürfe von „Roter Stern“-Fans, er kenne den Schlägertrupp, der erst nach Anpfiff am Spielfeldrand erschienen sei. Er habe lediglich einen Zuschauer begrüßt, der in der Nähe der Gruppe gestanden habe. „Wir distanzieren uns klar von rechten Umtrieben“, so Machatsch.

Such is called a self-fulfilling prophecy and nobody does it better than the tabloid media.

The water cannons summed up the absurdity of the past week perhaps better than anything else.

Firstly, as any fool know, the escalation that has to occur before a water cannon is used is immense.

And we mean, huge.

We have witnessed water cannon often enough but have witnessed many, many  more situations where water cannon weren’t used. Mainly because their use would have been counterproductive and unhelpful.
And so despite the presence of the water cannon there was no real intention of using them, because there was absolutely no possibility that a situation requiring their usage would arise.

A fact tacitly supported by the fact that the things were pointing the wrong way.

From where they were positioned they would have to have turned round in order to have been sent into the stadium – and such machines are not built to be maneuverable.
And so the thinking must have been to use them in front of the stadium. Amongst the trees.
Yet, as any hool know, the front of the stadium is the bit that has the most plain clothes police around and where the most uniformed are stationed.  And getting a large enough rioting mass to justify the use of water cannon in front of the Stadion am Bad, would involve an awful lot of unobservant police.

And it was never going to happen.

As last years example with Blue Caps et al showed.

However, because RBL-M and Klaus Reichenbach don’t understand either the nature of the beast that is against them nor the nature of football fans in Sachsen, they assume that around every corner is risk to life and limb and put undue pressure on teh police to react.

That the police do so is a sad indictment on the police in Sachsen.

And so instead of mentioning the absurd decision to send TWO water cannon to an oberliagsüd match, a better focus may have been the order from the police to close the outdoor pool which gives „Stadion am Bad“ it’s name on „security grounds“. A decision that more than one Markranstädter found hard to accept given the high temperatures and clear blue sky. And a  decision that underlies the hyperbole surrounding RBL-M.

High point of the Bild article however was the headline that the 2600+ fans were peacful.

So were the 2600+ at Lok on Saturday … which didn’t deserve a mention. Odd,given that the peaceful nature of football in the forest of Markranstädt is the main marketing point of RBL-M

Elsewhere, the NOFV announced today that they have started a formal process following events in Jena.

Away from the scenic idyll of Leipzig-Markranstädt, Dynamo Dresden continued their typical run of apparently insurmountable bad luck in München, while Jena and Aue battled a goalless draw.

Next weekends Thüringen derby will be more than little ruined by Ultras Erfurts decision not to travel to Jena; however, given the conditions the Erfurt fans were being asked to accept we can fully understand the decision.

LOK were shocking but their fans seem to be taking it in their stride… how long that continues will depend to a great extent what happens next weekend….

Firstly RBL are now called RBL-M, having somewhat inexplicably decided to create a new suburb;  Leipzig-Markranstädt.

Presumably when they move to the Zentralstadion/Red Bull Arena they will either lose the Markranstädt, or simply replace it with Waldstrassen Viertel

(Although even more inexplicably the stadium announcer did twice refer to some club that goes by the  name of SSV Markranstädt … obviously he needs to be sent to Salzburg for a bit of old fashioned socialist Reorientation.)
Secondly, and despite all rhetoric to the contrary, RBL-M have’t raised the height of their security fence. What they have done, however, is added a second layer of fencing in front of the home support. It’s not very high, but like a double oxer you ain’t going to get over it if your not particularly agile. Which we believe is a comment on the demographics of the home support.

And so the only fans locked in a cage were the LOKies; and although the quality on display was respectable, the numbers were too low to be any sort of serious threat.

What there was was two water cannon.
Madness!!

Although we were initially appalled by their presence after a quick discussion with some of the SKB’s the hope was raised that they could be used as an ad-hoc cooling system on a warm summers afternoon.

Sadly it wasnt to be, but it may be worth noting for the future, liebe PD Leipzig.

On the pitch RB Leipzig somewhat destroyed our earlier prediction that Zwickau would be the team to beat this season.
RBL-M were much, much better, and although 4-0 was harsh, Zwickau alone are to blame that they didn’t get at least a couple of goals. But despite the drubbing we still believe that Zwicaku will be setting the pace at Easter.

Honest.

Off the pitch Red Kaos were once again a shining example of why they are amongst the best organised and disciplined Ultra groups in Germany. It’s hard not to have respect for those who sacrifice their free time for a team who play in a ruin on the side of a dangerous slag heap, and they do that with a finesse and a self belief that many other groups would do well to copy.

On the other side, LE Bulls had a noticeably larger group than in Jena, and three brand new drums, but still didn’t do much in the way of support. Indeed without Zwickau the place would genuinely have resembled a museum on warm Sunday afternoon rather than a sporting occasion.
And the banner calling for the development of tradition in Leipzig Markranstädt did seem to undermine the Andreas Sadlo’s assertion that the Red Bull would allow the fanscene to develop naturally and without intervention… or showed a poor grasp of marketing from LE Bulls.

They’ll learn. They all do.

And so as we cycled back from Markranstädt to Leipzig we reflected on …. nothing,  to tiring is an afternoon under the inhumane Sachsen sun.

We’ve experienced a lot in and around the Bruno Plache Stadium, and cut a lot more than on our teeth on the experiences we’ve made in Probstheida.

Rarely, however, have we experienced such a poor quality afternoon as today.

Fortuitously the weather was fantastic or else there would be nothing good to mention.

For us the afternoon got off to a less than perfect start thanks to a well intended, but less than optimal executed, Choreo from LOK. The idea was super, but the air was too still for the smoke, there were too few Bengalos, and too little conviction from the participants.

Sadly.

On the field LOK were awful, rarely showed anything that could vaguely be considered character and were certainly only a shadow of the team that won the same fixture 6:3 last season.

It’s early in the season, and it was a touch too warm for football, but if LOK want to make an impression this season they need to step up several gears – and if BSL want to make an impression they need to make sure they are punctually back after the half-time break.