Shocking moment football hooligans attack female photographer and man in his 70s

This is the shocking moment football hooligans attacked a female photographer and a man in his 70s before a game in Dublin.

German club Schalke used the gap in the football calendar created by the international break to arrange a friendly with Irish Premier Division side Bohemians.

Footage taken before Saturday’s friendly shows hundreds of Schalke fans marching down Abbey Street Lower in the centre of Dublin while chanting songs.

Award-winning documentary photographer Carly Clarke was stood in the middle of the oncoming crowd and had her camera pushed away by one supporter.

Her friend Steve, who is believed to be in his 70s, tries to intervene but is then shoved to the floor and kicked in the head.

‘Today in Dublin, I went to photograph what I thought was a parade,’ Clarke posted on X. ‘They grabbed my camera & pushed Steve over.

‘They then kicked him in the head, unable to get up they continued to kick him. They were Schalke football hooligans. I’m so appalled and disgusted!’

Schalke have now released a statement condemning the footage seen on social media, insisting they are ‘disturbed’ by the ‘completely unjustifiable’ actions of some fans.

‘FC Schalke 04 travelled to Dublin to spend a special trip away with our fans for the purposes of a friendly match,’ the statement read. ‘Around 2,000 Schalke supporters accompanied the team and the S04 delegation.

‘The photos that have been circulating on social media since yesterday afternoon [11/10] are disturbing and hard to process.

‘These incidents are completely unjustifiable and have overshadowed the trip to the extent that we, as a club, feel the need to issue a clear statement.

‘FC Schalke 04 expects everyone who supports and follows the club to behave in a manner that is respectful and responsible. This type of incident cast the club and our community in a light that is not fair to S04, nor to the thousands of peaceful Schalke fans.

‘The perception that his creates is damaging to the culture at the club and the identity of Schalke 04. We utterly condemn these incidents and, as announced, will rigorously investigate the events and take appropriate action.

‘This review process began yesterday, despite the fact that the information at our disposal is still unclear. FC Schalke 04 wants to express its sympathy for those affected by the incident and wish them a full recovery.’

While currently in the second tier of German football, Schalke are traditionally one of the biggest teams in Germany, having won seven Bundesliga titles and six domestic cups.

The 1997 UEFA Super Cup winners lost Saturday’s friendly in Dublin 3-2 as Bohemians clinched a narrow win at Dalymount Park in the north side of the Irish capital.

During the game, Bohemians content and media manager Darren O’Hanlon appeared to be spat at by travelling Schalke fans.

‘So a couple of people are asking what happened there and that’s the thing, you’re not missing any context, what you see is what happened,’ O’Hanlon said on Instagram.

‘So, Schalke fans were doing this call and respond thing, so quite a few fans would shout something, and then the whole fan base respond to them.

‘I was like, “That’s cool, I’m going to go down the end and get pictures of them”, because as they’re shouting, they’re doing these fist pumps and throwing their scarves.

‘So I went down the corner to shoot it, and what you see in the video is… This camera is what I’m shooting on, you can see the lens in the video.

‘But what captured the video is this 360 camera so while I’m taking pictures with this [main camera], I leave this running all the time, just to hopefully capture something cool or whatever.

‘I just leave it running and then I make TikToks and stuff out of it. So, I didn’t even see him. I was looking through my camera, I didn’t see him, I wasn’t taking pictures of him… I didn’t speak to him, he didn’t speak to me.

‘He just walked up and spit on me and I didn’t even realise what happened. It took about ten seconds, 15 seconds to go, “Did he f******* spit on me?” And I realised there was spit on my cheek, I was like, “What the f***?”

‘As I said, I had the 360 camera running the whole time so you can see me sitting with my arse on the grass in front of the Des Kelly [stand] when the chant was happening.

‘In the video, I’m sitting and I’m looking at the fans as they’re singing, and I’m nodding my head going, “This is deadly”. And I’m smiling, and that’s when I was like, “I’ve got to get a video”. I just walk down and you see what you see, so that’s why it was mad.

‘There was no interaction, I don’t know if the problem was that I had a camera full stop, or if it was the fact I was wearing a Bohs jacket, or what? There was just no interaction.

‘And then someone’s asked as well, “What was the German guy saying?” Because you hear someone else saying something to him, he was giving out to him. I don’t f*** speak German, but it sounds like something along the lines of, “F*** off, or stop all that s*”.

‘So someone else said something to him, and he kind of gave them a look like, “What are you talking about?” and he kept walking. Just nuts… When I realised what happened, I was f****** fuming, so I end up leaving for like 20 minutes, I missed most of the second half.’

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