- VfL Osnabrück cancels participation in the meeting at the Ministry of the Interior
VfL Osnabrück has cancelled its participation in the scheduled discussion today with the Lower Saxony interior minister, Daniela Behrens. The meeting in Hannover was to discuss problematic fan behavior among professional clubs in Lower Saxony.
"After the invitation and an internal agreement with committees, VfL intended to travel to Hannover with fan representatives, but the ministry rejected this participation," a statement from the football third-division club said.
Also invited were Bundesliga club VfL Wolfsburg and second-division clubs Hannover 96 and Eintracht Braunschweig. In the past, matches between Hannover and Braunschweig have often been accompanied by violent incidents. Therefore, SPD politician Behrens had called for the exclusion of visiting fans in these derbies.
VfL president Holger Elixmann stated that he had already informed the minister that, from Osnabrück's perspective, there is no need for a "violence summit" as there are no issues in this regard in Osnabrück and their dialogue formats have proven successful.
VfL Osnabrück remains open to dialogue. These formats could have been presented at the meeting, but "as is usual with us, this would have been most sensibly done with fan involvement," Elixmann said, adding, "In the future, we will gladly engage in dialogue in formats that are open to results and involve all parties concerned. However, we have consequently cancelled our participation in today's event."
The cancellation of VfL Osnabrück's participation in the meeting with Minister Daniela Behrens from the Ministry of the Interior was due to their rejected proposal to bring fan representatives. Despite the cancellation, VfL Osnabrück remains committed to dialogues, suggesting that such discussions could have been more effective with fan involvement and open to all parties.
