Police quickly quashed a couple of rowdy outbreaks between German football fans and Dons supporters before they could escalate into widespread disorder in Aberdeen city centre last night.
It followed the stunning 2-0 defeat of Bundesliga giants Eintracht Frankfurt at Pittodrie, the first time Aberdeen has beaten a German side at home since 1983.
As many as 300 foreign visitors congregated outside the stadium on Thursday night after UEFA banned their club from selling tickets for the away Europa Conference League tournament.
The Frankfurt supporters’ “good-natured” chants could be heard from inside Pittodrie’s grounds during the game, but most Germans who flocked to the city could only watch the match on television screens in local pubs.
“The away fans were a bigger presence in the city centre,” Chief Inspector Andy Scott said, also revealing: “Aberdeen fans tried to isolate smaller pockets of away fans to try to antagonise them”.
‘Outbreaks’ between Aberdeen FC fans and Eintracht Frankfurt supporters were ‘quickly quashed’ by police
But in an exclusive interview with The Press and Journal, the policing event’s Bronze Commander went on to praise officers for their “largely successful” operation to keep both sides safe.
He told The P&J: “There were some attempts by rival fans to create a little bit of disorder and get to each other, particularly in and around Belmont Street.
“There were a couple of outbreaks but they were very quickly quashed by police interception to prevent them from spilling into disorder.
“We quickly identified flashpoints and, as soon as we saw two rival factions getting into the same locality, we were able to flood it with police.
“On a couple of occasions, they got quite close to each other, but no punches, bottles, bricks or anything else were thrown.”
Police Scotland set up cordons in some areas to prevent rival groups from coming together while other groups of officers intercepted the moving crowds to prevent them from taking to certain streets.
“That was the most used tactic by us,” Chief Inspector Scott explained. “We prevented an escalation with a visible police deterrent”.
He confirmed that no arrests had taken place at the stadium and, at the time of publication, the Ch Insp also said that officers had not arrested anyone elsewhere.
However, some German tourists did fall foul of city by-laws during their visit, it has emerged.
“Some foreign football fans coming to Aberdeen didn’t know about some of the by-laws.
“Discretionary powers were used to give warnings about having open containers of alcohol.
“But the away fans apologised and then adhered to the warnings after the discretionary advice they’d been given.”
Police said ‘at times we were tested’ following the Dons’ defeating Eintracht Frankfurt at Pittodrie
After overseeing the football fans’ police escorts back into the city centre, the senior officer was relieved to report that no widespread disorder had taken place.
“At times we were tested while managing some of the risk but we got there,” he said.
Ch Insp Scott compared last night’s operational success with an occasion in March earlier this year when Frankfurt fans visited Italy, where there was “considerable disorder”.
He went on: “The Naples game was the same as Aberdeen where they weren’t allowed into the grounds.
“They arrived in that city in numbers, couldn’t get into the stadium and they caused disorder, lots of damage, lots of fighting. We largely prevented that here.”
Following their beloved team’s defeat yesterday evening, “a large number of German fans” boarded a southbound train to Edinburgh, on which the “vast majority” of tourists, who were supervised by British Transport Police, then left Aberdeen.
A minority of the foreign visitors remained in the Granite City for an overnight stay.
READ MORE: Everything that happened during Thursday night’s game
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