Hansa is the strongest brand that this city and the state have. It is therefore all the more important that those responsible take care of this brand and finally flex the muscles of the decent people and say, we’re going to do something about it
Admin I Friday, November 01, 2024
BERLIN – Hansa Rostock leaders must step up their measures against fan violence because repeated incidents are tainting the image of the whole region, a local tourism official has said.
Tobias Woitendorf, managing director of the tourism board in the stage of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where Rostock is located, told Friday’s Ostsee-Zeitung that the behaviour of the third division club’s fans are “an absolute negative factor for tourism.
“Hansa is the strongest brand that this city and the state have. It is therefore all the more important that those responsible take care of this brand and finally flex the muscles of the decent people and say, we’re going to do something about it,” Woitendorf said.
Rostock fans have a history of violent behaviour.
Last weekend, they attacked a train with Rot-Weiss Essen fans, who were travelling to the league match at Rostock, in the neighbouring state of Brandenburg.
The latest incident, among other reasons, prompted the immediate resignation of five long-serving supervisory board members at the club.
Rostock’s main sponsor had withdrawn at the end of the past season due to the fan violence.
State sports minister Stefanie Drese said earlier in the week that “the club must credibly and resolutely renounce violence, hatred and threats at all levels, otherwise it risks sinking into chaos.”
Rostock won the league and cup double in the last East German season 1990-91.
That gave them a place in the Bundesliga of the reunited country. But they have been in steady decline, and Rostock have played in the second and third tier since 2008.
