BERLIN: A Schalke 04 fan was on Wednesday jailed for 18 months for setting off pyrotechnic flares during a Bundesliga match which hospitalised eight people two years ago.
Despite a nationwide ban on pyrotechnics in Germany's top flight stadiums, the 24-year-old student from Gelsenkirchen was convicted of setting off the fireworks during Schalke's match against Eintracht Frankfurt in November 2012.
The unnamed supporter, a member of Schalke's 'Hugos' ultra fan group who has repeatedly appeared in front of the Gelsenkirchen district court for football-related offences since he was 16, had originally been given a suspended sentence last year.
But an appeal by state prosecutors saw the sentence changed to a prison term by a regional court in Essen, which the fan has already appealed.
The German Football Association (DFB) has been clamping down on flares being lit in Bundesliga stadiums and this is one of the first times a fan has been jailed.
During sentencing judge Marcus Doerlemann said the football supporter had acted with complete disregard for the safety of the eight fellow supporters who needed hospital treatment after the 12 flares were let off in a tightly-packed fan block.
"(The flares) were completely out of control, there were children in the fan block, but you didn't care," said the judge.
Comments
Comments are closed.