Not the way to light a fire under someones behind

Frankfurt’s “Saboteurs”

 
Eintracht Frankfurt did not exactly bring Fireworks to the game in Karlsruhe this past weekend, at least not on the field. There were plenty of Fireworks in the visitors section of the Wildpark Stadion from the Frankfurt Fans however and the match was almost called off by Referee Michael Weiner. This after Frankfurt was fined the week before due to the behavior of their fans at a match in Köln. Now the Club is again facing a heavy fine from the DFB and Eintracht Boss Heribert Bruchhagen is steamed and calling the Fans “Saboteure”.

 
At the Clubs board meeting on Tuesday those responsible were the first thing on the agenda according to Bruchhagen. Small wonder as the previous fine for the Cologne match incidents was 5000 Euros and the incident in Karlsruhe should be quite a bit more up to about 60000 Euros. Some of the fireworks lit in the visitors section landed in the vicinity of KSC Keeper Markus Miller. Referee Michael Weiner then took the players off the pitch and started the second half only after a 5 minute delay.
“Every Euro we have to spend for this is aggravating” said Bruchhagen in anticipation of the coming fine and added: “We are not going to tolerate this sort of thing. We will probably pay a severe price but this needs to stop. We can’t allow ourselves to let certain parties dictate their actions to us”.

 
Eintracht adds new measures immediately

A press release from the Club on Tuesday showed some of the first changes effective from now on. Tickets to Away matches will only be given out after verifying an individual’s information. All Fan utensils like Banners, huge Flags and megaphones are also forbidden after recurring infractions until further notice. The Eintracht Club leadership also offered an apology to KSC for the unacceptable behavior of the Frankfurt Fans. In the apology they also stated unequivocally that the Karlsruher SC and their Security Personnel bear no responsibility for the events on Saturday.
According to Police data several of the responsible individuals have been identified and arrested. One of the culprits seen burning Pyro will be sued for damages by the Club and all of the individuals could face a nationwide stadium ban in Germany.

Eintracht Board Member Klaus Lötzbeier, responsible for Fan Matters with the Club, summarized it like this: “Eintracht Frankfurt will try any means necessary to remove the criminal elements amongst our Fans and we also appeal to all of our Supporters that honor the Club and love the game to help us with this.” According to Lötzbeier this could mean restrictions on every fan as that is the only way to find the “irresponsible people that hide behind the peaceful supporters and eliminate them.”

Of course the Eintracht Frankfurt Internet forums are seeing some heavy use as the different supporters are going at each other over right or wrong, good or bad, and of course trying to figure out the reasons why this happened and how to prevent it.

So what is your opinion is this part of the game and supposed to help the team or is this more about Fan groups trying to make a name and reputation for themselves?