The traditional fan march of the lions from the Candidplatz up to the stadium could be a dry affair in the future. Glass beer bottles, which were previously often carried on the way as refreshment, will be banned in the future. For this and for further tightening of the rules around the Grünwalder Stadium and also around the Fröttmaninger Arena, the city council changed the ordinances on Tuesday. However, the coalition of the Greens and the SPD emphasized that it was not quite as powerful as intended by the district administration department (KVR) and the police. After a long struggle, the result was “a compromise”, said the majority in the city council, with which KVR boss Thomas Böhle can “live well”.
For the fans of TSV 1860 Munich, this not only means that they will have to go up the mountain for plastic cups or cans to quench their thirst for beer. The police can now intervene more easily when carrying symbols and banners that glorify violence or are racist, as well as pyrotechnics. Pushing any objects through the fence into the stadium interior should be prevented. The ban on masking becomes a constant rule. By and large, these tightenings also apply to the FC Bayern arena in Fröttmaning.
The previous regulation only applied to the stadium on Grünwalder Straße if the respective match was classified as a so-called risk game. In future it will apply to every game in Giesing. The criteria for the classification are vague, and the status of a game often changes at short notice, the police criticized the previous rules. The extension of the regulation to all games had felt the fans of the lions but also their president Robert Reisinger as “overregulation”.
This is one of the reasons why the resolution originally planned for 2020 was postponed again in May 2021. Now, as a “compromise”, as politicians called the new regulations, two important locations have been removed: the Candidplatz as the meeting place for the lions and the Grünspitz at the top of the stadium. The responsible district committee had also demanded this in advance in great unity. To this end, a controversial passage has been removed from the ordinances: the ban on “joining together in joint actions that disrupt peace”. Such a blanket and undefined fact is unnecessary, said the Greens and the SPD.
For the fans of FC Bayern and especially the supporters of the visiting team, the regulation is applied in a larger area. The new pedestrian bridge from the footpath on Fröttmaninger Heide over the subway tracks to the new guest entrance in the north and the new guest car park made the revision necessary. For this purpose, the police wanted the bus parking spaces, the east emergency route and the northern transition from the Fröttmaning underground station to the Esplanade to be included in the scope. The policy corresponded to this with one exception, namely the location of the bus of the fan project, which carries the workers’ welfare. The stadium regulations only apply on match days: the game begins four hours before the game and ends two hours after it.
Sports mayor Verena Dietl (SPD) was just as satisfied as a large part of the city council. “The fan scene is a living part of our urban culture. It is very important to me not to regulate more than is necessary and already regulated by law.”
The CSU thinks the compromise that she has praised is wrong. How the concerns of the local residents are disregarded here is “a mess”, annoyed city councilor Thomas Schmid. The body of residents, the Untergiesing-Harlaching district committee, had expressed a very different opinion with the votes of its party colleagues. It criticized the rule that has now been implemented to handle all games like risk games. The stadium regulations would have been discussed in peace and quiet, also with local residents and fan representatives. They had stated from the start that the reasons for the tightening were not sound.
However, it cannot be said that the ordinances were changed quickly. They were delayed so much because of the criticism that the circumstances cited no longer apply. Originally, they should have been used for the games of the European Championship in the Fröttmaninger Arena. To this end, the administration was based on three teams who play their third division games in the Grünwalder Stadium. In the meantime, however, FC Bayern’s second team has been relegated and Türkgücü is moving to the Olympic Stadium.