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Arsenal were supposed to kick off their Europa League campaign today with a match against FC Köln. That match was supposed to kick off a half hour ago. It is now scheduled to kick off at 1PM PT/4PM ET/9PM BT. Why? This is why.
I tried to get in from main bridge 1 hr before kick-off. Packed with Koln fans - being held back. Estimated 20,000 Koln fans; 2,900 tickets. pic.twitter.com/8zJ0YbxJCT
— Andy Mitten (@AndyMitten) September 14, 2017
There are significantly more Köln fans in the area than there were ticketed fans, so the police decided to hold them back and push back KO for an hour to avoid a massive crush. But, once they decided to let people in, this started happening:
Example of just how many Cologne fans are in the Arsenal end. pic.twitter.com/tvrA97qGvI
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) September 14, 2017
and then they started looking for trouble:
More trouble at Arsenal now inside the stadium. Koln fans trying to start fights with #AFC fans. pic.twitter.com/KkuWRMHP7z
— Transfer Man (@_transferman) September 14, 2017
This does not look good. It doesn’t look good for Arsenal, for their stewarding, or for Köln and its supporters. As of now, the game’s still due to kick off in 30 min, but the situation seems fairly fluid so we’ll keep you updated.