VfB trainer Sebastian Hoeneß and his counterpart Thomas Letsch also commented on the matter during their respective post-match press conferences.
Hoeneß seemed visibly annoyed that his team had to “warm up again” in frigid temperatures. Letsch praised the spirit of both fan-bases and revealed his thoughts on the stubborn stand-off between the Stuttgart fan-base and the VfL stadium security staff.
VfB’s official statement on the matter merely called for “meticulous investigation of the matter” while admitting that any fan-action endangering “fan-safety” served no one. Stuttgart did post more introspective thoughts from supporters on its X (formerly twitter) social media feed. The critical comments of some VfB ultras were allowed to stand.
In their respective post-match pressers, trainers Sebastian Hoeneß and Thomas Letsch commented on the incident as well. Hoeneß looked visibly annoyed – perhaps relating more to the fact that his team just lost – and made some semi-critical comments before walking his words back carefully.
“There’s a drop in energy after playing a first-half of football,” Hoeneß noted, “and the risk that one can’t ramp it back up increases when there’s a delay. It’s a difficult situation.”
“But in the final analysis,” Hoeneß was quick to continue, “the lads were able to warm themselves back up and get into fighting shape. It’s certainly not a situation that we hope frequently repeats itself.”
“I found the communication between the refereeing staff and the coaches to have been quite good,” Letsch added, “We were kept up-to-date and its important that all parties involved remain calm.”
“But it remains aggravating,” Letsch continued, “I’m never happy to see such a game interrupted for such unnecessary reasons. Both teams have great fan-bases; something that was also shown here today.”
“There was noise and atmosphere today,” Letsch concluded, “It was quintessential ‘Ruhr-stadion’. I simply thought to myself, ‘for God’s sake, put this banner away’. There’s no need for [either side] to lose face.”
