Ghost game

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Empty stadium in Dresden

As mystery games are mostly football matches called that because of sanctions against supporters of one or both clubs involved or due to security considerations without public are held.

Based on the "real" ghost games, higher-class games with only very little audience are sometimes jokingly referred to as ghost games .

principle

In the case of a ghost game, access to the stadium is only granted to the persons directly involved in the game, stewards and security personnel and, if applicable, media representatives, club officials and service personnel; the stands remain empty. Such a measure is often preceded by misconduct by the supporters of the host club in an earlier game. Fans of the visiting club are also turned away, although not responsible. Scheduling a ghost game results in a loss of income for the home club due to the lack of entry fees and is therefore a popular and mostly effective means of pressure on the club concerned, in addition to the threat of fines or points deduction. As a further possibility of penalties, some encounters are subject to partial exclusion of spectators, in which individual blocks or entire stands are blocked, but the remaining seats remain open. These penalties are often given on probation and only come into effect if the fans concerned allow themselves further missteps within a certain period of time.

Examples

Germany

The first ghost game in German professional football took place on January 26, 2004 in Aachen between Alemannia Aachen and 1. FC Nürnberg . This was ordered as a replay of the 2nd Bundesliga by the DFL , since the Nuremberg coach Wolfgang Wolf was hit in the head by a projectile in the first game . After there had previously been riots in a game between Hansa Rostock and FC St. Pauli (1: 3), the second division game Hansa Rostock - Dynamo Dresden was kicked off on December 18, 2011 in camera. The Dresdeners were hit by another ghost game in the same season: the triggering reason for the game without spectators against FC Ingolstadt on March 11, 2012 were riots in the second round match for the DFB Cup at Borussia Dortmund on October 25, 2011.

Another ghost game was played on August 30, 2008 in the 3rd division between FC Rot-Weiß Erfurt and the second team from Werder Bremen . This game took place in camera by order of the DFB , because two weeks earlier at the derby between Erfurt and FC Carl Zeiss Jena, parts of the local audience had called anti-Semitic chants in the direction of the Jena fan block. The DFB punished Karlsruher SC in summer 2012 for riots following the lost relegation game against Regensburg ; he had to play his third division home game against Osnabrück without spectators.

Two ghost games took place in the Regionalliga in September 2009: the reserves of TSV 1860 Munich had to play against SV Darmstadt 98 on September 17th, just like the second representatives of 1. FC Kaiserslautern and Bayer 04 Leverkusen one day later . The sanctions were justified with firecrackers thrown on the playing field during the Munich game in Weiden , or riots during the Kaiserslautern guest performance in Mannheim .

The third division derby between 1. FC Magdeburg and Halleschen FC on November 26, 2016, was threatened by being classified as a ghost game without any connection to misconduct . Representatives of the press were also not allowed in. The reason was one of the city Magdeburg , the owner of the MDCC-Arena is pronounced use prohibition , led the problems with the statics of the stadium and thus saw great risk viewers security. Only with the assurance of the Magdeburg fans in particular that they would forego the usual hopping during this encounter and thus protect the building fabric, a game in front of empty stands could be prevented for a short time.

On December 23, 2016, the DFB imposed a second ghost game against Hansa Rostock. Due to the use of pyrotechnics during an already extended probation period, in addition to a fine of € 10,000 and partial exclusions from the five subsequent home games, Hansa's third division back-round start on January 28, 2017 against Jahn Regensburg had to be played without an audience. The association announced that it would make claims for recourse against identified perpetrators.

End of June 2017 condemned the NOFV the FC Energie Cottbus in addition to a fine of 16,000 € for the first home game of the Regional season 2017/18 unsubscribe without spectators. The triggering reason was, in addition to fan failure in Meuselwitz , Leipzig and Bautzen, in particular riots in Babelsberg . However, the association did not accept this judgment and successfully appealed. Instead of a ghost game, a guest fan ban was then ordered for the away derby in Babelsberg, which was classified as a risk game, as well as a probation period until the end of the year. In addition, the Lausitzers had to provide their own stewards for every further away encounter of the season.

On July 24, 2017, the DFB again punished the behavior of fans of TSV 1860 Munich, this time because of the events in the final phase of the decisive relegation game against Jahn Regensburg. Its result meant that the lions had to relegate to the third division, and due to economic problems, ultimately even to the fourth division regional league Bavaria . Munich supporters tried to storm the Allianz-Arena square , threw a large number of objects onto the field and set off pyrotechnics. Thereupon the DFB sports court ordered not to admit spectators to the league game against the second representative of 1. FC Nürnberg.

On March 11, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, the first ghost game of the 1st Bundesliga took place with the Rhenish Derby between Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln in Borussia-Park (catch-up game on matchday 21, 2: 1) instead of.

With the continuation of the Bundesliga season on May 15, 2020, all games took place in this way. The three remaining DFB-Pokal matches at this point in time were also set as ghost games.

Austria

In the Austrian Bundesliga , two ghost games were pronounced as a punitive measure against Rapid because of a storm by fans of SK Rapid Wien , which led to the derby against Austria Wien being canceled on May 22, 2011. The penalty was later reduced to a ghost game by the permanent neutral court of arbitration . This took place on July 16, 2011 against the promoted Admira Wacker .

In May 2020, it was decided to continue the 2019/20 Bundesliga season after the interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic from June 2, 2020 in the form of ghost games. The ÖFB Cup final of the same season between Salzburg and Austria Lustenau was also made up for as a ghost game on May 29th.

Switzerland

The first ghost game in Switzerland took place on April 19, 2001 as a replay between FC Sion and Servette Geneva . In the original game the two teams of the Geneva goalkeeper was Eric Pedat of a thrown from the opponent's fan block petard hit, injured and replaced at halftime. Servette continued to play under protest; the game ended 2-1 for Sion. The disciplinary committee of the league ordered a new edition of the encounter as a ghost game, this ended 1: 1.

Between 2003 and 2006 there were a total of six full or partial closures of St. Jakob-Park , the home stadium of FC Basel . In 2006, two ghost games were imposed there after Basel fans stormed the pitch on May 13, immediately after the home defeat against FC Zurich , which meant the championship for the guests.

After his fans had thrown around ten petards into the family sector below during a 4-0 defeat against FC Basel on May 2, 2008, the game had to be interrupted and another 45 people were injured after the encounter, they punished Disciplinary commission to FC Zurich with two ghost games and a fine of 30,000 francs.

On October 2, 2011, FCZ fans rioted at the Grasshoppers derby against FC Zurich in Letzigrund . The game had to be canceled after 77 minutes. According to eyewitnesses, an FCZ fan from the south curve (where the guest fan block is located) went in the direction of the GCZ fans and detonated two petards that flew into the home sector. The perpetrator is said to have calmly walked back to the south curve, where he found shelter. Immediately, as if on command or according to a rehearsed plan, resistance from people dressed in black rose. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung gave the news the title Shame of Zurich in reference to the shame of Basel . After the incident, the league discussed immediate measures that should be applied at the next FCZ game. Then there were fights against FC Basel in the stands. After this incident, Swiss politicians demanded that the police “rigorously take out” people masked in stadiums and that the FCZ be punished. According to police, six people were injured in this game. After 47 days it became known that both clubs would have to pay 53,000 francs and that the next Zurich derby would take place without fans.

Europe

In the 2012/13 Europa League season , Rapid Wien was given a game without an audience as a penalty because of riots during the game against PAOK Thessaloniki on 23 August 2012. This took place on September 20, 2012 against Rosenborg Trondheim in the Ernst Happel Stadium . Because of the incidents in the same game, PAOK even had to play three ghost games, which took place from the 2013/14 season due to the club's departure. The first of these games was the qualifying game for the Champions League on August 27, 2013 against Schalke 04 .

During the Europa League round of 16 second leg on March 20, 2014 between FC Basel and FC Salzburg , objects were thrown onto the field from the Basel curve, so that the game was interrupted for a quarter of an hour during the first half. The disciplinary body of the European football association UEFA punished Basel with a ghost game and a fine of 107,000 euros, and another ghost game was pronounced on probation. After throwing a liquor bottle in the Champions League group match between FC Basel and Liverpool on October 4, 2014 Due to the probation that there was a suspension in the room, the club was only fined 48,000 Swiss francs.

For the 2014/15 Champions League season , the UEFA Disciplinary Committee, in addition to a fine of 200,000 euros, suspended a total of four home games against CSKA Moscow after its fans had played in the group game of the previous season at Viktoria Plzen and in the first group game of the current season had made racist comments at AS Roma . This affected u. a. the first home game of the group stage against FC Bayern Munich . UEFA also banned the club from selling tickets for the remaining international away matches of the season.

Racist remarks as well as the accusation that spectators deliberately blocked stairs on the third group match day against Chelsea led to Dynamo Kiev having to play its group match against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in front of empty ranks in the 2015/16 Champions League season . Initially, the next round of 16 against Manchester City was supposed to be a ghost game, but UEFA reduced the previously pronounced verdict from two to one game suspension in the second instance.

Due to multiple use of pyrotechnics, attempted block storms, objects on the field and alleged racist remarks on the first group match day of the 2016/17 Champions League season against Borussia Dortmund, the UEFA Legia Warsaw fined 80,000 euros to the home game against Real Madrid without spectators to carry out.

At the beginning of August 2017, the UEFA Disciplinary Commission imposed a fine of 130,000 euros on Partizan Belgrade, two international ghost games plus another with a three-year probationary period. The events during the Champions League qualifying games against Budućnost Podgorica and Olympiakos Piraeus , which resulted in blocked stairs, burning of pyrotechnics, throwing objects, racist remarks and unauthorized entry into the interior, were punished .

In May 2018, the UEFA sentenced Olympique Marseille to several partial spectator exclusions for various fan offenses, as well as to play the next European Cup home game as a ghost game. This affected the Europa League encounter with Eintracht Frankfurt on September 20, 2018.

In March 2020, due to the threat of infection from the global coronavirus, several games of the round of 16 of the Champions League and Europa League were played as ghost games before both competitions were interrupted. In August, the remaining round of 16 were played to the exclusion of spectators, as were all subsequent rounds, including the finals, which took place within a few days in tournament form in Lisbon (Champions League) and North Rhine-Westphalia (Europa League).

Countermeasures

As a measure to counteract the loss of income caused by ghost games, some clubs and / or fan groups organized donation measures in the form of so-called ghost tickets . For a donation equal to the normal entry price, the fan receives a donation receipt in the form of a ticket. However, this does not entitle you to any entries. Hansa Rostock was the first team to try to reduce the financial damage with such an action.

  • Dynamo Dresden achieved one of the greatest donation successes of this kind at its ghost game on March 11, 2012 against FC Ingolstadt 04. With 34,638 ghost tickets, more “seats” were sold than would have been available in the real stadium. In addition, around 7,100 season ticket holders would have been entitled to admission to the game, which meant that the stadium's maximum audience capacity of 32,066 people could be exceeded by more than 9,000 seats as a result of the ghost tickets sold.
  • In January 2017, Hansa Rostock even sold ghost tickets in various categories under the motto With the heart in it , in order to keep the loss of income from the sanctioned encounter against Regensburg low. In addition to 2,500 season ticket holders and 600 business seat owners who did not make use of their right to reimbursement, an additional 2,500 false tickets could be brought to the fan in this way.
  • As so-called fair play tickets , 1860 Munich sold ghost tickets for € 10.60 in July 2017 in order to contain the financial damage from the ghost game against the reserve of 1. FC Nürnberg. Among other things, the proceeds should be used to support the youth training center of the Sechzger .
  • The 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig set a special record with the action People, fill the booth! on: for the duel with a so-called invisible opponent , a total of 182,612 false tickets were sold in May 2020 at a price of one euro each. In reality, this would have exceeded the previous European attendance record of 149,547 visitors by far.

On the occasion of the Champions League ghost game on September 30, 2014 at CSKA Moscow, fans of FC Bayern Munich rented an entire floor in a skyscraper in the immediate vicinity of the Arena Khimki and were still able to watch the game. In recognition of the creativity of its supporters, the association agreed to assume the costs for this.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Ghost game" in Aachen: Two sausage sellers and the honorary president. In: Spiegel Online . January 26, 2004, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Express.de: Yikes ?!: But a spectator at Hansa's ghost game. In: express.de. December 18, 2011, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  3. ^ Cup exclusion for Dresden canceled. In: rhein-zeitung.de. February 27, 2015, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  4. ↑ KSC denies ghost game against Osnabrück. In: kicker.de . August 2, 2012, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  5. ↑ DFB sanctions gun throwing at the U23 away game - high fine and game closed to the public on tsv1860.de on September 11, 2009, no longer available
  6. ↑ FCK accepts judgment. In: kicker.de . September 9, 2009, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  7. ↑ So now: Derby Magdeburg against Halle with fans. In: kicker.de . November 25, 2016. Retrieved November 28, 2016 .
  8. ^ Harte Hansa penalty: ghost game against Regensburg. In: kicker.de . December 23, 2016, accessed December 27, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Fine and ghost game: Cottbus is sanctioned. In: kicker.de . June 22, 2017. Retrieved June 23, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Cottbus: Exclusion of guest fans at Derby instead of ghost game. In: fanzeit.de. July 26, 2017. Retrieved July 26, 2017 .
  11. ↑ TSV 1860 Munich has to play a ghost game. In: kicker.de . July 24, 2017. Retrieved July 24, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Embolo decides the very first Bundesliga ghost game , kicker.de, March 11, 2020, accessed on March 12, 2020.
  13. ↑ ORF reacts to Platzsturm , accessed on June 1, 2011.
  14. ↑ Platzsturm: Just a "ghost game" for Rapid Die Presse.com, July 7, 2011.
  15. ↑ https://www.oefbl.at/oefbl/redaktionsbaum/news/der-ball-rollt-wieder--klubs-der-tipico-bundesliga-beschliessen-neuen-terminplan/
  16. ↑ Ghost games: a sad tradition in Switzerland. In: 20 minutes . April 3, 2014, accessed July 22, 2016 .
  17. ↑ The ghost games of FC Basel. In: TagesWoche . March 26, 2014, accessed July 22, 2016 .
  18. ↑ http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sport/fussball/Die-schwersten-Krawalle-mit-Schweizer-Klubs/story/16362426
  19. ^ "Shame of Zurich". In: nzz.ch. October 3, 2011, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  20. ↑ http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/558701/artikel_im-letzigrund-herrscht-das-blanke-chaos.html
  21. ↑ http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sport/fussball/ Jetzt-ist-es-Zeit-fuer-Geisterspiele/story/ 27115252
  22. ↑ http://www.blick.ch/sport/fussball/superleague/fc-zuerich/spielabbruch-beim-zuercher-derby-die-schande-von-zuerich-id87053.html
  23. ↑ http://www.fcz.ch/de/ueber-uns/medienspiegel/2011/1165-ohnmacht-hier-befriedigung-dort/
  24. ↑ Rapid has to play a "ghost game" Kleine Zeitung , September 14, 2012.
  25. ↑ 20 September 2012 The ghost game Rapid Vienna vs. Rosenborg Trondheim mein district.at.
  26. ^ Maximum sentence for Rapid after rioting in Thessaloniki Wiener Zeitung.at, August 28, 2012.
  27. ↑ Sebastian Weßling: Despite ghost game - some Schalke fans get tickets for the game in Saloniki. In: derwesten.de. August 15, 2013, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  28. ↑ Uefa is tough: a ghost game for FC Basel - no appeal. In: TagesWoche . March 26, 2014, accessed August 15, 2016 .
  29. ↑ FCB threatens ghost game, YB a fine: Swiss fans are making negative headlines in Europe. Retrieved July 22, 2016 .
  30. ↑ 48,000 francs fine for the FCB and another procedure. Retrieved August 6, 2016 .
  31. ↑ Racist incidents: CSKA Moscow sentenced to further ghost games. In: Spiegel Online . October 3, 2014, accessed February 27, 2015 .
  32. ↑ But not a ghost game for City in Kiev. In: kicker.de. February 2, 2016, accessed February 9, 2016 .
  33. ↑ Hammer penalty after BVB riot. In: reviersport.de. September 29, 2016. Retrieved September 29, 2016 .
  34. ↑ Partizan Belgrade punished with two ghost games. In: faszination-fankurve.de. August 8, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2017 .
  35. ↑ Hansa sells tickets for Geisterspiel. In: faszination-fankurve.de. January 3, 2017, accessed January 4, 2017 .
  36. ↑ 1860 Munich sells ghost game tickets. faszination-fankurve.de, July 28, 2017, accessed on July 28, 2017 .
  37. ↑ 182,612 tickets sold: Lok Leipzig breaks European record. kicker.de, May 9, 2020, accessed on May 18, 2020 .
  38. ↑ Logenblick from floor 18 , spiegel.de, October 1, 2014, accessed on March 13, 2020. Note on the information in the source, CFO Jan-Christian Dreesen paid the "bill" for the rental costs: the fans were offered to cover the costs However, a large part of them decided not to do so in the run-up to the game because they were disappointed with the club's lack of support and ultimately paid their share themselves. Note on the sponsor cards mentioned in the source: These were less used by the sponsors themselves, but mainly passed on to ZSKA fans.