Here Rudi Völler is giving away 20 tickets for the German ghost game in Serbia

The “Liga Pub Oblicev venac” in Belgrade was well filled. It was just after 5 p.m. when things got really loud. “There is only one Rudi Völler,” intoned the approximately 150 fans of the German national soccer team present. They had gathered in the basement of the pub on Oblicev Street to watch the upcoming Nations League game against Serbia on Friday evening (8:45 p.m., RTL and in the live ticker on WELT).

However, they received a visitor first: Rudi Völler, the sports director of the German Football Association (DFB), did the honors - including a little surprise. Immediately after his arrival, Völler raffled off 10 × 2 tickets for the game, which has to take place in the Red Star Belgrade stadium in front of sparsely occupied stands. The European association Uefa has banned the Serbian association from spectators because of racist abuse by its fans.

However, due to a passage in the UEFA regulations, children under the age of 15 are allowed to attend live if accompanied by teachers or trainers. The Serbian association is expecting around 5,000 visitors, and 50 DFB supporters are also allowed into the arena - and now another 20. The joy among the fans who were lucky was of course great.

“We tried everything as an association”

“Despite the sanctions, we as an association tried everything to ensure that German fans could be in the stadium,” said Völler to the fans, “but with a few exceptions that wasn’t possible.” The DFB only received tickets for sponsors and family members, and 20 tickets from this pool of tickets were raffled off among the supporters. After the short pub visit, Völler went back to the team hotel and later to the stadium.

The punishment against the Serbian association was only imposed a few weeks ago. But many German fans had already booked flights and a hotel. Because no insurance covers cases like this, many fans decided to make the trip to Belgrade anyway - and not let the money they had already spent expire.

The DFB team won the first leg against the Serbs 2-0 in Munich at the beginning of October. Tom Bischof and Florian Wirtz scored the goals. Germany last played in Belgrade 49 years ago. There was a 2-1 win against what was then Yugoslavia. But 50 years ago they had to accept a very bitter defeat at the Rajko Mitić Stadium. In the European Championship final, the then world champion Germany lost 3:5 on penalties against the then Czechoslovakia after Uli Hoeneß's legendary miss.