"Indignant" letter to FC Cologne: NRW Interior Minister Reul rages over knife banner

"Indignant" letter to FC Cologne NRW Interior Minister Reul rages over knife banner 26.02.2025, 15:22

Fans of 1. FC Cologne provoked fans with a large banner during the Rhine derby against Düsseldorf. The North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul was furious afterward, wrote an "indignant" letter - and warned of "increasing potential for aggression".

Following a controversial fan choreography, North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul wrote an angry letter to the managing director of 1. FC Cologne, Christian Keller. The CDU politician was "outraged" that the FC officials "even approved the corresponding depiction in advance," Reul said in the letter.

"To be clear: As the person responsible for a professional football club, you also have the task of ensuring security in the stadium and working with fans to de-escalate the situation. It is a mystery to me how this task could be reconciled with the decision made in this case," Reul wrote in the letter to Keller.

Before the Rhine derby against Fortuna Düsseldorf (1:1) on Sunday, a huge banner put up by FC fans in the Cologne stadium showed a man with the FC logo on his tie holding a large knife to the throat of Fortuna, the goddess of luck. The words "Luck is not a gift from the gods" were written on it - accompanied by malicious laughter over the loudspeakers.

Banner had no criminal relevance

Reul also tells Keller that the banner "apparently has no criminal relevance". The police checked this immediately. "Nevertheless: In today's world, where we are dealing with an increasing potential for aggression and knives are being used more and more frequently, a motif that depicts knife violence as part of fan rivalry is, in itself, completely out of place," says Reul.

Cologne's mayor Henriette Reker was herself the victim of a knife attack in 2015 and had also criticized the choreography. Keller had said: "You can argue about the motive. For me it is simply the rivalry between two active fan scenes." Despite the knife, the club had "not seen any call to violence" during its preliminary examination.

Reul also sent a copy of his letter to DFB President Bernd Neuendorf and Hans-Joachim Watzke as spokesperson for the executive committee of the German Football League (DFL).