Football: DFB Cup and Northeast Regional League: Carl Zeiss Jena on the rise

“And you want to be German champion?” chants rang through the Ernst Abbe sports field in Jena several times on Wednesday evening. The fans of the host FC Carl Zeiss honored their team’s performance in the last remaining DFB Cup first round game against Bayer Leverkusen. The fourth division team only lost 0-1 (0-0) to the German champions and cup winners. This also made Leverkusen’s national player Robert Andrich thoughtful: “We made mistakes that were too simple and caused the crowd to explode. We can be happy that we barely survived the round.«

Jonas Hofmann scored the goal of the day with a header in the 52nd minute. Jena’s Hamza Muqaj could have forced extra time in stoppage time. It wasn’t enough. »We wanted to look for our chance and spark something in the stadium. This was achieved against an extremely strong opponent. I’m proud,” explained Zeiss trainer Henning Bürger. With this game, Jena was able to continue advertising on its own behalf. The three-time GDR champion and former European Cup finalist has been stuck in the Regionalliga Nordost since 2020. Last season it was only seventh place, with Greifswalder FC, Viktoria Berlin and VSG Altglienicke also finishing ahead of the once proud East Thuringians.

Jena is currently on the rise. After five wins in five games, the FCC is at the top of the table. »The first games went really well. The game against Leverkusen is also part of it,” said Coach Bürger. And that creates euphoria that comes with the almost completed modernization of the stadium. Sampdoria Genoa, against whom Jena played the last two of 87 European Cup games in autumn 1988, was a guest at the official reopening at the end of July. In the 2-1 defeat in front of 11,400 spectators, the focus was primarily on the new area with the huge glass facade.

The stadium is finally finished and completely covered. The renovation, which cost more than 60 million euros, took three and a half years and was carried out while the game was still running. The developer was Elf5 Jena GmbH, a company owned by the city and the Jenarena and Elex consortium, which will operate the multifunctional arena, which is also suitable for concerts, for the next 25 years. It then becomes the property of the city of Jena.

Roland Duchâtelet, Jena’s long-standing partner in Spielbetriebs-GmbH, is behind Elex. The Belgian businessman and investor has repeatedly plugged financial holes since 2013, with a double-digit million amount flowing by 2022. Now the club management has to sort this out. »Since 2023, the annual losses of Spielbetriebs-GmbH have no longer been borne by the shareholder. We have to do business sensibly. The goal must be for this football location to be self-sustaining,” explained President Ralph Grillitsch.

The club has around 5,500 members and 2,800 season tickets were sold for the season. 7,361 visitors saw the 1-0 win in the last regional league home game against Chemnitzer FC. Against Leverkusen the stadium was sold out for the first time with 15,000 visitors. Next Wednesday, only 12,880 visitors will be able to attend the explosive derby against arch-rivals Rot-Weiß Erfurt because a safety buffer is required next to the guest block. “We hope that things remain relatively peaceful,” said Grillitsch.

The behavior of the Ultras does not fit with the spirit of optimism. They have been openly hostile to striker Kay Seidemann, who came from Erfurt, for weeks. From the perspective of the Jena Ultras, he had positioned himself too much on the red and white side on social media during his time in Erfurt. He is not allowed to approach the Jena Ultras block.

When the team wanted to do this together with Seidemann after the win against Chemnitz, anti-Seidemann shouts rang out from the south curve. Then all the players turned away. The 24-year-old has now been instructed by the club not to go to the Ultras anymore. This led to the bizarre situation in which Seidemann was celebrated alone in front of three stands after the game against Leverkusen, while the rest of the team on the other side received verbal praise from the Ultras. “We still need a lot of communication to soften these deadlocked lines,” says Grillitsch.

Things are a little more relaxed for the women, who were promoted back to the 1st Bundesliga after two years. »They use the entire infrastructure and, like the men, are now playing all home games in the new stadium in accordance with a DFB requirement. The job is to keep the class,” said Grillitsch. The footballers also benefit from the traditional Zeiss company, to which the club owes its name. After his withdrawal in 2002, he is now back among the supporters of Jena’s young talent, men and women. So there are good prospects – also for footballers being promoted to the 3rd league.