DFB insists security is ´priority number one´ after Hannover scare

Interim president of the German Football Association (DFB) Rainer Koch admits the right decision was taken to cancel Germany’s friendly against Netherlands due to security fears.

Tuesday’s fixture at the HDI-Arena in Hannover was called off shortly before kick-off after police confirmed there was a “serious plans to bring about an explosion” at the venue.

The incident followed on from Friday’s terror attacks in Paris. The Stade de France, where the German national team were playing a friendly against France, was one of the venues targeted.

“The first vice-president of the DFB has a lot of tasks but he is not the official speaker of the police department,” Koch said.

“That is why I do not want to give away any knowledge and only say from my point of view, that the decision to cancel the match was the right thing to do.

“The security of the visitors, the teams and the staff is priority number one and the situation was as such, that I think the only possibility was to cancel the game.”

Koch admitted it had been a difficult time for all involved with the DFB, as they had debated over whether to cancel the friendly against Netherlands following the atrocities in Paris.

He was also quick to praise the security staff for doing an “amazing job” in and around the ground in Hannover.

“I am very stressed because we had a lot of meetings and duties during these days,” Koch added.

“I am also very sad about the terror attacks and the many victims in Paris, in France. I’m also scared about the threat, the terror threat, which seems to have reached Germany as well.

“Obviously this morning I was relieved that we do not have victims in Germany and that all went well. At this point I have to mention the good work of our security staff which did an amazing job.”