Before his club's next big trip, Eintracht Frankfurt's President Peter Fischer once again made a particularly sharp statement.

"It's the worst crap.

I'm ashamed of football that we're already being threatened today: we'll kick anyone we catch who identifies as a Eintracht player," Fischer commented on the English side's announcement in the Europa League first leg between West Ham United and Hesse to take rigorous action in London on Thursday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Europa League and on RTL).

Frankfurt fans in neutral blocks?

Tens of thousands of followers instead of the allowed 3000?

According to the will of the hosts from the island, there shouldn't be anything like that this time.

Two weeks after the memorable football day in Barcelona, ​​including the victory at Camp Nou, Eintracht would have liked to celebrate the next huge festival in a European metropolis.

At least in the city, Fischer still expects large crowds of fans.

“It was incredible in Milan, in Rome – no matter where we were.

That's normal for us now," said Fischer in the ZDF "Sportstudio".

The evening at the Camp Nou, where up to 30,000 fans in white shirts ensured a magical Frankfurt football night, left its mark in some places.

At Eintracht, who are longing for more such evenings in London and at the final in Seville on May 18th.

At West Ham, who now want to protect their Olympic Stadium particularly well against the announced "eagle invasion" (CEO Axel Hellmann).

And also at Barca, where coach Xavi Hernandez criticized the club for a planning error and club president Joan Laporta even spoke of "a shame".

"The Spaniards can't count"

This year there are some favorable factors for such extraordinary fan actions.

After two years of corona restrictions, the supporters are not only drawn back to the stadiums, but also on trips.

Everything came together before the evening at the big FC Barcelona: The club immediately announced a “game of the century”, the fans booked their trips everywhere, the Easter holidays and the Good Friday following the day of the game did the rest.

Fans flew over Morocco, booked tickets through their Spanish hotels or used American credit cards.

But England is not Spain (Fischer: "The Spaniards can't count") and West Ham is not Barça.

For the capital club from England, the semi-final itself is a huge game, plus the so-called "zero tolerance policy" in the stadium.

In concrete terms, this means that Frankfurt fans are only allowed in the guest block.

If you identify yourself as a Eintracht fan in other blocks or VIP boxes, you are threatened with direct expulsion.

This is what happened to the club three years ago at Chelsea, said President Fischer.

For him, the procedure is a no go.

The official therefore described the anger of the fans at the English football clubs: They should "play their international games between Alaska and the North Sea", it was whispered in the environment.

Fan expert Martin Endemann from the "Football Supporters Europe" network also assumes that hardly more than the 3,000 fans planned will make it into the stadium.

“The number of holders who want to use the cards themselves will be huge.

The chances for Eintracht fans are therefore rather manageable," said Endemann of the German Press Agency.

However, the expert believes that the fans can realistically assess their chances.

"It will not be comparable to Barcelona.

Now a lot of people will speculate on saving money for Seville,” said Endemann.

There could be a German final against RB Leipzig in May.

On June 7th, things could go the other way around: then thousands of English fans want to go to Munich to see their “Three Lions” play in the Nations League.

According to reports, the supporters are already stocking up on numerous tickets for certain blocks, using similar tricks as the Eintracht fans in Barcelona.

The DFB only said: “For security reasons, there is a UK country ban.

All customers residing in the UK cannot purchase tickets in the web shop.”