Overview

• On July 3, the city council’s CDU, SPD and FDP factions voted down a proposal by the Ratsgruppe “Gut & Klima Freunde” to lease the Gleueler Wiese to BUND for 30 years.
• The rejection upholds the Bundesverwaltungsgericht’s April 2024 verdict, keeping the club’s master plan in force as it awaits an Oberverwaltungsgericht Münster ruling.
• Hundreds of FC Köln supporters assembled outside the Kölner Rathaus at the club’s urging to protest what officials described as a last-minute political blockade.
• Philipp Türoff branded the motion a “tactical foul” that preempted due process, and president Werner Wolf said the club will exhaust all judicial avenues to advance the build.
• The episode underscores a decade-long clash between efforts to modernize the Geißbockheim facility and environmental safeguards for Cologne’s outer green belt.