Frankfurt's Krösche suggests ban for clubs that ban travelling fans

Eintracht Frankfurt board member for sport Markus Krösche has criticised a ban of their fans from attending the teams' Champions League match at Napoli and suggested that such clubs should banned from competing in Europe.

"If you are not capable as an organizer or a club to stage a game where you let travelling fans and home fans participate then, to be honest, they shouldn't participate," Krösche said.

Krösche named the absence of Frankfurt fans from Tuesday's match which ended 0-0 a "distortion of competition."

Local Italian authorities had imposed the stadium ban on Frankfurt residents for security reasons.

A similar ban was in place when the teams met two years ago but a number of Frankfurt fans still travelled to Naples and there was violence in the city between both fan camps.

This time around there was no noticable Frankfurt fan presence in Naples and board member Philipp Reschke named rumours suggesting the opposite "wrong and not helpful."

Frankfurt defender Robin Koch said that the players had missed the fans.

"We would have really liked to have them here. Support is extremely important for us at every match," Koch said.

Frankfurt criticised the ban for weeks and a request to have the match played on neutral ground or behind closed doors was turned down by the ruling body UEFA last month.

Reschke at the time named the issue "a real problem for European fan culture and the integrity of European club competitions."

Frankfurt said that there have been 15 bans on away fans in European club events since their 2023 match at Napoli, most notably in Italy and France, but also for the upcoming Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv Europa League match on Thursday.

The club added they welcomed that UEFA was in the process of updating its rules in this respect.