Police order 60 Crystal Palace fans to leave Leipzig ahead of final

German police moved to clear 60 Crystal Palace supporters from Leipzig city centre after a night of clashes that left two people arrested and forced officers to check the identities of more than 300 people. The intervention came as Crystal Palace and Rayo Vallecano fans gathered in the German city before the Europa Conference League final at Leipzig Stadium.

Police said the main confrontation happened on Tuesday evening, when around 300 Rayo Vallecano fans encountered Palace supporters sitting outside restaurants. Bottles, beer glasses and furniture were thrown as the groups came together in the city centre. Officers also stepped in during a separate incident involving around 60 Crystal Palace fans who were said to have provoked Spanish supporters.

The response was not limited to arrests. German police identified 60 Palace fans as known troublemakers and ordered them to leave Leipzig, a move that showed authorities treating the buildup to the final as a public-order problem rather than a single isolated clash. Footage circulating on social media showed groups moving toward Palace fans outside a city-centre Irish bar before riot police separated them.

Crystal Palace’s official fan guidance said the match was due to kick off at 20:00 BST, 21:00 CEST, on Wednesday, 27 May 2026. The final had been framed by the club as a historic occasion, but the scenes in Leipzig underlined how quickly a showpiece event can become a policing test when rival supporters converge in a tightly controlled urban setting.

The checks on more than 300 people and the decision to remove a defined group of Palace supporters pointed to a preventive strategy built around intelligence, rapid intervention and crowd control. For German police, the challenge was not simply to respond after disorder began, but to contain a predictable risk around a major final where alcohol, restaurant terraces and crowded city-centre streets left little margin for error.