The appeal sounds helpless after the events of the Whitsun weekend: "Fair first" is written on a poster next to the clubhouse of SV Viktoria Preußen 07. Because at a football tournament on the grounds of the club in the Frankfurt district of Eckenheim, there was a brawl with a terrible outcome on Sunday. The international youth tournament "Germany Cup", which takes place 14 times in spring and summer at different locations throughout Germany, was attended by two teams from Berlin and Metz in France. On Sunday afternoon, the teams competed against each other.
Anna-Sophia Lang
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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Barbara Schäder
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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According to current police findings, there was a "player tumult" after the final whistle of the game at around 16:10 p.m., which escalated and eventually led to a brawl. In the course of this, a sixteen-year-old from the French team is said to have hit a 15-year-old opponent from Berlin so violently against the head that he collapsed and was resuscitated on the pitch by rescue workers. After the teenager was taken to a hospital, doctors found life-threatening head injuries and declared him brain dead.
A blow "in the back" to the head
The alleged perpetrator was arrested and a day later, on Whit Monday, brought before the magistrate at the Frankfurt District Court, who issued an arrest warrant. He is now in custody. In Hesse, there are two correctional facilities that are responsible for juvenile and adolescent pre-trial detainees.
According to the district court, the arrest warrant is based on the accusation of dangerous bodily injury resulting in death. The accused is said to have attacked another opponent and hit him in the face with both fists. He then took the fifteen-year-old into a sweatbox and punched him in the stomach area, but he was able to free himself and walk away. The accused, however, ran after him and gave him a firm blow to the head "in the back". Then he left the collapsed teenager and left.
The district court ordered pre-trial detention because of the accusation, which according to the Code of Criminal Procedure is sufficient in itself, and because of the risk of absconding: The young Frenchman has no residence in Germany.
In the meantime, training is being resumed on the club grounds, said a teenager on Tuesday afternoon, who practiced shots on goal on the football field. His team had come together on Monday evening for training, but not on the pitch where the crime had occurred. He, too, witnessed the action as a spectator. "Our coach said, 'You can see what can happen if someone doesn't have a grip on themselves.'