Mental and physical violence are not uncommon on soccer fields. Theresa Hoffmann is responsible for violence prevention in Berlin and talks about possible causes.
Insults, threats and punches – violence on football pitches and especially in amateur football is often an issue. Games in Berlin are no exception. This is one of the reasons why the Berlin Football Association (BFV) has had a new scientific officer for violence prevention in Theresa Hoffmann since 2021. Under her leadership, the BFV recently had the first Violence report for the 2021/22 season [berliner-fussball.de] published. Around 860 cases of psychological and physical violence prosecuted by a sports court were analyzed in it.
rbb|24: Ms. Hoffmann, the Berlin Football Association (BFV) recently published its first report on violence in amateur football. Why was that important?
Theresa Hoffmann: It was really important to me personally, because I’ve been working in this area for two years and didn’t have any data. But my position is called scientific consultant, which is why objective data is very important to me. Because I didn’t have any, I said to myself: Well, then I’ll just do it myself and see what data there is. I took the sports court rulings from last season and looked at what kind of violence we have on the pitches.
Theresa Hoffmann, responsible for violence prevention at the Berlin Football Association.
Can you summarize that briefly: What are the typical and most frequently occurring incidents of violence on football pitches?
Interestingly enough, the physical and verbal world are balanced. On the verbal side, it’s insults, threats, discrimination and other unsportsmanlike behavior. And on the other hand there is physical violence, as one imagines it: kicking, hitting, spitting, throwing things – these are the typical things that we have again and again.
It’s all about analyzing violence that’s not part of the game in football. An elbow strike in the game, for example, can of course be intentional and always gives a red card, but it may not have to be brute force. Where do you draw the line when it comes to physical violence?
That has actually been difficult. I looked at the sports court rulings. If the sports court rated something as a foul, i.e. as part of the game, it was not included in the report as an incident of violence. However, if the sports court has declared something as an act of violence, yes.
What do you see as the bigger problem: physical or verbal violence?
The direct effects are mostly physical violence. But we’re also talking about spirals of violence, and they always start with words. That’s why, in my view, this verbal part is the worse part in the long run – because it can build up and ultimately result in physical violence.
One of the core observations of the report was that violence occurs primarily among men and male youth teams from youth C, i.e. from the age of 14. What could be the reason?
That’s a good question that I’ve been asked for years. To a certain extent, certainly due to socially prescribed stereotypes and socialization. Depending on gender, they are associated with different inhibitions. But I still don’t have a conclusive and really satisfying answer as to why we have so much less violence in the female field.
You have been a sports psychologist and scientific consultant for violence prevention at the BFV for two years. What are you going to do with this report over the next few years?
The report is a basis that I can refer to and that we can use to see where we can start. For the past two years, violence against referees has been a dominant topic for me. However, the report now shows that violence among players, at least in terms of numbers, is an even bigger issue. What is needed is a concept for preventing violence that not only focuses on one group in football, but explicitly also on the players.
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Who are you talking to specifically? Is it club presidents who are supposed to pass this on, or are coaches more likely to be invited?
In the past, we have spoken to many clubs and specifically to individual teams, where incidents of violence have occurred frequently. Of course, a general basis like the report helps to establish a relationship.
In your work as a sports psychologist at the BFV you also have the opportunity to talk to referees who feel pressured and threatened on the pitch. How regularly is this accepted?
Very regularly now. It took a while to get to know each other and build a relationship of trust, but now my Monday consists almost exclusively of such phone calls. I also scan all the special reports on the matches to see what the referees have experienced. If in doubt, I’ll call them myself.
Are referees such a vulnerable group on the football field because they have such an exposed position and both teams, both coaches and the spectators work on them?
In any case. They are a vulnerable group for various reasons. If only because of the ratio of numbers: We have eleven people on one side and eleven people on the other, but only one to a maximum of three people as referees or teams. If we add the benches and all the spectators, we have a massive imbalance. To do this, referees have to make decisions that are sometimes unpopular – and in the eyes of the teams sometimes go in favor of the opponent.
With what consequences?
Nobody likes that because everyone wants to win. The referees are often the smallest member of the group that has to endure being blamed. And because he doesn’t belong to any of the teams, he’s on the outside, nobody feels responsible for the referee. Accordingly, it is often not perceived as part of the game at all.
In an interview with the “Tagesspiegel” you once said that referees can play a key role in preventing violence. How can this work?
Referees have a responsibility for safety on the pitch – for everyone involved as well as their own. You notice when the first provocations begin – which to a certain extent can also be normal in football. It’s the referee’s job to notice and intervene before it escalates. When things get tough, through personal punishments or warnings or so-called crime scene presence. Just by being around, they can stop one or the other.
One piece of good news from the report is that there are very few games where things go completely haywire and there are multiple incidents. Did that surprise you?
No not true. It sometimes seems different in public, because these cases are of course picked up by the media. Fortunately, this is only a fraction of the games. But still: 860 incidents of violence were recorded by sports courts last season, in just under 2.8 percent of all games. That sounds like very little at first and I’m also glad that the majority of the games go smoothly. But of course it’s still way too much. And the games that go haywire, unfortunately, often go haywire completely.
Of the 860 cases, just under 500 each were physical and verbal violence. From your point of view: How far can these numbers realistically be reduced?
I’d be happy if we start with the assaults. If we quickly get at least under 400, maybe even 375 cases per season. After all, in the case of assaults, someone suffers physical damage playing football. I’m happy about every case that we can prevent. But of course: In the long term, the number in both areas must go down much further. It cannot be that almost 500 people experience physical or psychological violence in their hobby.
Thank you for the interview!
The interview was conducted by Simon Wenzel, rbb Sport.
Broadcast: rbb24 Inforadio, Vis a vis, May 2nd, 2023, 10:45 a.m
