Youth festival at the stadium: German club forced to move DFB-Pokal final! | OneFootball

The situation could hardly be more curious: When the “Final Day of Amateurs” takes place all over the country next May and teams compete for trophies, the traditional club Rot-Weiß Erfurt will definitely not have a home game – because a youth coming-of-age ceremony will be held at their own Steigerwaldstadion.

No joke! According to a report by 'Bild', the VIP rooms of the arena are firmly booked for a large youth celebration on May 23. Football? Not a chance!

In the Thuringian State Cup, RWE is considered one of the top favorites alongside Carl Zeiss Jena. The other semifinalists are from Meuselwitz and Bad Frankenhausen.

But if there actually is a final involving Erfurt, things get complicated. In that case, the final would have to be relocated to East Thuringia, most likely to Jena or Meuselwitz.

The reason: For the live broadcast, a stadium-suitable package is needed, including safety, infrastructure, and technology. And apart from the Steigerwaldstadion, there seems to be no arena in the immediate vicinity that meets these criteria.

By the way, it’s no surprise that this bizarre scheduling conflict has occurred. It has been known since March 2025 that the Steigerwaldstadion is blocked on that day. Several attempts to reschedule the youth coming-of-age ceremony have failed.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.

📸 Karina Hessland - 2018 Getty Images