“There are no excuses”: Jürgen Klopp jokes about the advantages of a behind-closed-doors match against Serbia – and suspects there is a competition

Jürgen Klopp sees no problem with Germany's Nations League away match in Serbia taking place with almost no fans in the stadium. Quite the opposite.

Speaking to RTL before the match, the national team coach was asked whether he would hold back his touchline comments because of the behind-closed-doors match. He said: "Not so far, to be honest. Besides, I think the 5,000 children from Serbia are very loud. There must have been some kind of competition: Who can be the loudest under the age of 14? And they found them."

Aside from children accompanied by teachers or coaches, a UEFA ban kept fans out of Belgrade's Rajko Mitic Stadium. The sanction followed racist and discriminatory incidents during Serbia's internationals against Greece and the Netherlands in September. European football's governing body opened disciplinary proceedings, and its Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body ultimately imposed a spectator ban for one home match.

Initially, UEFA allowed no exceptions. Shortly before the match, the Serbian association reached an agreement with UEFA to let the children in, and they made themselves heard. Horns sounded repeatedly during the match, recalling the legendary vuvuzelas at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Behind-closed-doors match against Serbia: Jürgen Klopp jokes about touchline instructions

Even so, the players could more or less talk to one another on the pitch and hear Klopp's remarks, as they had during the coronavirus pandemic. "I'm actually quite glad about that," Klopp said with a broad grin, joking: "There are no excuses! The players have to be able to hear me today, and that helps us work together." He added that lately he had not "shouted that many terrible things onto the pitch" anyway.

Some German fans were there too. The DFB had received 200 tickets from UEFA for delegation members, support staff and relatives. It passed 50 on to particularly loyal fans known as "Allesfahrer", who had earned many bonus points by regularly attending internationals.

Why were there so few Serbian fans in the stadium for the first match?

In the first match at Munich's Allianz Arena in early October, Serbia's national team had already been largely without their fans. UEFA had imposed a fan ban back in December 2024, leaving the away section completely empty apart from a few seats.

That punishment followed a November 2024 incident, when Serbian fans tried to set fire to an Albanian flag during the Nations League match in Switzerland (1-1). UEFA ordered a partial stadium closure for two of Serbia's UEFA home matches and banned away ticket sales for two of Serbia's UEFA away matches.