Hamburg's promotion pitch invasion sees 25 hospitalised, one with ‘life-threatening injuries'

New York Times

11-05-2025

A 'major emergency medical response' had to be deployed after Hamburg's promotion to the Bundesliga was confirmed following their 6-1 home win over Ulm on Saturday.
Thousands of fans rushed onto the pitch at the full-time whistle, resulting in injuries to several, the Hamburg Fire Department confirmed in a statement.
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The Hamburg Fire Department said 25 people had been taken to local hospitals, five with minor injuries, 19 with serious injuries and one with life-threatening injuries. A total of 44 individuals had received treatment with 65 medical and emergency personnel deployed to Hamburg's Volksparkstadion, the statement added.
'After the final whistle, football fans stormed the stadium, resulting in injuries to several fans. The Hamburg Fire Department launched a major emergency medical response to support the emergency services on site,' the statement said. 'Since then, 44 patients have received medical treatment. Five with minor injuries, 19 with serious injuries, and one with life-threatening injuries were transported to nearby hospitals.'
The victory over Ulm confirmed Hamburg's promotion back to the German top flight with one game remaining. They are one point ahead of second-placed Koln and four ahead of third-placed Elversberg. Hamburg will win the title if they better or equal Koln's result on the final day next Sunday.
Hamburg had never been relegated to the 2. Bundesliga before their demotion in 2017-18 and a series of third- and fourth-placed finishes in the six seasons since has seen them remain in the second tier.
Hamburg sacked Steffen Baumgart in November after five wins, four draws and three defeats to begin the season. Now led by Merlin Polzin, who took over from Baumgart, Hamburg have only lost three times under the 34-year-old and have won the joint-most points since.
From Sebastian Stafford-Bloor at Volksparkstadion
Before full-time, the pitch announcer asked the fans to stay off the pitch, but that was never likely to happen. Pitch invasions in celebration are as common in Germany as they are anywhere else, and that in itself was not a reason for concern.
As soon as the game ended, fans poured onto the pitch from every side of the stadium, but it was relatively gentle and it took several minutes for the entire pitch to be covered. It wasn't obvious that anyone had been hurt.
Seven years later. Hamburg are up. pic.twitter.com/acpdpZGtct
— Seb Stafford-Bloor (@SebSB) May 10, 2025
A lot of the players were down on the pitch celebrating with the supporters. Some fans let off flares and were flying flags. Others were digging pieces of turf from the pitch. A group managed to climb on top of the crossbar of the goal at the foot of the Nordtribune. It collapsed, but nobody in the area showed any alarm.
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There was a police presence around the tunnel. Everything was good-natured, but officers had to cordon off an area to allow some of the players to get back into the dressing room. Some fans were in conversation with the police, but seemed to be respecting what they were being told to do and there were no outward signs of aggression — no pushing or shoving.
The press position at the Volkspark is high, meaning that members of the media were quite far away, but everything I saw was good-natured. The celebrations continued for a long time. About 90 minutes after full-time, the players went to the top of the stadium to lead chants; it was a very typical promotion party.
When I left the stadium, I heard sirens and could see emergency services approaching the area, but that isn't particularly unusual at the Volkspark. The stadium holds 57,000 people and sells out for every game, and the police are often involved in crowd control or dealing with smaller issues. It seemed more likely at the time that extra resources were being deployed to disperse the crowd.