Police issue 270 expulsions: St. Pauli fans in focus!

Police issue 270 expulsions: St. Pauli fans in focus!

On October 26, 2025, during the Bundesliga game between Eintracht Frankfurt and FC St. Pauli, there was a massive police operation that caused many fans of the host and guests to be excited. Hundreds of FC St. Pauli supporters were not allowed to travel to the game after the police extensively sent off 270 St. Pauli fans. The background was clashes between around 50 fans from both camps in Hanover main station, where bottles were thrown and physical injuries occurred. A larger police presence was necessary to separate the fighting groups, reports said T Online.

The meeting between the two fan camps in Hanover was no coincidence. Fans of VfL Wolfsburg and FC St. Pauli happened to bump into each other on the way to their respective away games. As tempers flared and objects such as construction site barriers and bottles flew, police intervened and took personally identifiable information from both groups. During the checks at Frankfurt Central Station, more than 100 pyrotechnic objects and masking equipment were seized, which were found on VfL Wolfsburg fans.

Criticism of police measures

The police's actions were sharply criticized. FC St. Pauli described the action as a “collective punishment” and questioned the proportionality of the sending off. Oke Göttlich, president of the club, spoke in the ZDF sports studio about the police measures that prevented his supporters from seeing the game at Deutsche Bank Park. As a result, around 200 fans were not represented in the guest block, which severely affected the atmosphere, according to a report by Kickers emerges.

The police justified their measures by citing the safety of all travelers. Michael Schuol, President of the Hanover Federal Police Directorate, explained that their goal is to consistently prosecute identified crimes. But the St. Pauli Fan Aid emphasized that the police had already been waiting for the arriving fans at the main train station, which led to an additional escalation of the situation. Identity checks and the issuing of entry bans were symptoms of a more tense relationship between fans and the police, which has increasingly been in the headlines since the pandemic.

The path to de-escalation

The current incidents should not be viewed in isolation. The background is the generally tense relationships between fans and police, which have increased in recent years. Uwe Stahlmann, head of the state information center for sports operations in Baden-Württemberg, reports a slight increase in violent incidents, but this should not be exaggerated. Michael Gabriel, head of the fan project coordination office, also sees the police's responsibility in the relationship with the fans and advocates more trust and de-escalation strategies, as in an article by Deutschlandfunk was investigated.

In this context, FC St. Pauli plans to collect additional information in order to analyze the events surrounding the police operation. The aim is to avoid similar clashes in the future and to improve communication between fan groups and security forces.