DORTMUND, Germany — Borussia Dortmund has expressed concerns over “disproportionate” police actions that have hindered some fans from traveling to Italy for an upcoming Champions League match against Atalanta, while Italian authorities have also approached supporters who are already in the country.
“While it is reasonable to conduct a security risk assessment for a football match, Borussia Dortmund is astonished by the extent of the police measures implemented,” the club remarked in a statement released on Tuesday. “Such actions, at this level and intensity, have never been employed in connection with our team’s international away games before.”
The club is actively seeking more information about the reasoning and legal justification behind these measures, which they find completely perplexing.
The Südtribune Dortmund supporters’ group, which includes numerous smaller fan organizations, indicated earlier on Tuesday that German police had prevented Dortmund fans from traveling to Italy over the weekend, although these prohibitions were successfully contested in a swift legal process.
However, the ongoing search by federal police for up to 300 Dortmund supporters, whose attendance in Bergamo has been barred for what Südtribune Dortmund deemed “unsubstantiated reasons,” has caused difficulties for all fans wishing to attend the match.
Consequently, Südtribune Dortmund announced that its active groups have “reluctantly opted to refrain from attending the match in Bergamo.”
With a 2-0 advantage over Atalanta from the first leg, Dortmund stated in its announcement that it “deeply regrets that some of its fans will be unable to experience the away game in Bergamo due to this questionable conduct by the authorities.”