German police have detailed 59 Paris Saint-Germain fans ahead of the club’s must-win UEFA Champions League match against VfB Stuttgart, according to a statement released via their official X account.
They say that following consultation with a local judge, the decision was taken to avoid “serious riots” in the city as both clubs find themselves needing three points on Wednesday to guarantee their progression in Europe’s elite club competition.
The fans were detained on Tuesday, and will remain in custody on matchday before being released on Thursday.
The full statement confirms: “In the run-up to the game, it was clear that German and French hooligans of both clubs wanted to take the last preliminary round game of the Champions League as an opportunity to seek heavy disputes away from the stadium.”
“For this, the hooligans from Paris traveled together to Stuttgart without tickets. High-risk fans of VfB Stuttgart as well as high-risk fans from Saint-Étienne tried to spy on the whereabouts of French hooligans throughout the day. In order to prevent the imminent clash of these violent fans, the emergency services carried out low-threshold targeted checks on numerous French hooligans as early as Tuesday noon,” the police continued.
Police have also detained 47 high-risk Stuttgart fans who they say “tried to spy on French hooligans and carried some passive weapons.”
Carsten Höfler, the city police’s Vice President, warned that “anyone who travels to Stuttgart to commit violent crimes off the pitch will be taken out of the game.”