Europe’s first major indoor stadium, the Gelsenkirchen Arena, sponsored by the Veltins brewery, has been declared an alcohol-restricted zone. The Veltins, in fact, today will be the only one of the 10 venues of the German Euro Cup where UEFA will only allow the sale of beer with a maximum of 2.8% alcohol and only two bottles per person. The measure has a police reason.
Those responsible for the tournament’s security believe that an exception is imposed due to the coincidence in today’s match of 40,000 English and 10,000 Serbian fans, two potentially very conflictive fans, especially if they mix while intoxicated.
“In Gelsenkirchen the police also do not want to allow fans to enter the stands with their glasses,” a UEFA spokesperson explained to the Times; “This prohibition does not exist in other venues.” One of the police officials at the Ruhr stadium, Inspector Christof Burghardt, explained that the match has been declared “high risk” due to “the history of hooliganism that the two fans have.” The officer observed that they do the right thing to “prevent things from happening.”
Alcoholic cultural exchange is part of Euro Cup folklore. Generally, it is peaceful, as was seen on Friday in Munich, where Bavarians and Scots ended up singing together. But it doesn’t always happen that way. Serbia has not participated in a Euro Cup since 2000. In the absence of Russia, sanctioned for the invasion of Ukraine, the Serbs are the nation with the most Slavic roots that participates in the competition along with Ukraine, only with a Government that has sometimes shown itself much closer to Vladimir Putin. The geopolitical background leaves its mark.
UEFA is aware that in the group stage of the 2016 Euro Cup, England and Russia crossed paths in Marseille with unfortunate consequences. Up to 35 people were injured – two of them very serious – and dozens of prisoners were the result of a mass brawl in the Old Port of Marseille, after a group of Russians broke into the English, attacking everyone they found in their path and throwing many people into the sea, in what was an abrupt end to two days of drunkenness and noise in the center of the city. The French police were slow to react forcefully and the Government received criticism for this. Now UEFA is trying to anticipate.
The Euro office in Gelsenkirchen is torn between the desire to stimulate the party and the duty to inhibit it. Its manager, Wilhem Wessels, gave a tantalizing warning to the AP: “We have enough beer in Gelsenkirchen, up to 80,000 liters.”
Faced with this contradiction, the city’s police chief, Peter Both, indicated that he is not concerned that alcohol is drunk at will outside the Veltins Arena. “If someone comes in so drunk that he can’t hold the ticket,” he said, “I hope they stop him from entering the stadium.”
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