Before the Interior Ministers’ Conference, politicians and fans are in a constant quarrel. Research by the Sportschau makes it clear that existing measures make a significant contribution to stadium safety. But that hardly plays a role in the emotionally heated debate.
“Football has never been so safe.” The Ministry of the Interior of Baden-Württemberg comes to this assessment. “In the 2024/2025 season there were fewer crimes, less violence, fewer injuries and fewer police deployment hours in the football stadiums in Baden-Württemberg – and that with more games and more spectators than in the previous season.”writes the ministry at the request of the sports show.
The answer is surprising given that the debate about safety in the football stadiums of the first three professional leagues has long since ceased to be objective. However, it is based on facts and so the state of Baden-Württemberg is not alone in this assessment. Hesse, Saxony-Anhalt and Rhineland-Palatinate also expressed similar views.
The Interior Minister there, Michael Ebling (SPD), makes it clear with reference to his federal state: “Stadium security is high here and visits to the stadium – for example in Kaiserslautern or Mainz – are safe. The numbers also prove this.” The police officers deployed and the clubs’ security and order services clearly also contribute to this security.
Debate about measures overblown?
Given that stricter measures for even greater stadium security are actually to be considered at the upcoming Interior Ministers’ Conference from December 3rd to 5th in Bremen, such differentiated feedback from politicians was not necessarily to be expected.
Even Lower Saxony states that visiting a stadium in Germany is not inherently unsafe. The vast majority of fans are sporty. Nevertheless, at the suggestion of Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Daniela Behrens (SPD), the IMK increased the pressure on the DFL and DFB last year. “We demand binding concepts for the introduction of personalized tickets for high-risk games, better entry controls, concrete concepts against pyrotechnics and a tightening of the stadium ban guidelines.”, said the minister in response to a sports show request.
Hamburg argues similarly and also gives the figures on the basis of which the IMK’s demands are made to the football associations. With almost 33 million visitors to the stadiums across all competitions, more than 600 bystanders were injured. 70 of them through the use of pyrotechnics alone. For the federal state a receipt, “That in football, like no other sport, there are still regular riots”.
Fans criticize populist debate
Fans have been criticizing these figures for an unstable security situation in the stadiums for weeks on match days and beyond. “Winning the favor of the masses by dramatizing the situation”, This is how populism is defined, explains Thomas Kessen, spokesman for the fan alliance “Our Curve”. “Even police numbers don’t give rise to a security debate. On the contrary, even these police numbers prove that football is safer than ever before.”
The police statistics are actually declining. However, arguments between fans in so-called third places such as train stations or away from the stadiums have recently increased. For example, riots at Oelde train station between fans of Rot-Weiss Essen and supporters of Hannover 96 paralyzed train traffic for hours. In Hamburg, Cologne fans were randomly attacked on the Reeperbahn by HSV-Hooligans addressed.
The security authorities certainly have a point here; fan projects also repeatedly warn of negative developments in recent months. But the way in which the debate about safety in the stadiums has been conducted is of great concern to football fans.
“Football is currently under attack from power politicians who are ignorant, ignorant but lusting after headlines.”says Thomas Kessen. That’s why Germany’s fan scenes have started a petition with the title “Stop populism – German football is safe”which aims to collect 100,000 signatures by the start of the IMK meeting on Wednesday.
Successful ones Stadium Alliances
In addition, there are already successful measures that have sustainably increased security in the stadiums in recent years. Such as the so-called stadium alliances. To this end, the Federal Ministry of the Interior commissioned a study that confirms that this dialogue format “that the stadium alliances have developed into a very important component in security-related match day management in Germany”.
With the help of these stadium alliances, all security partners work together to define an appropriate concept in the run-up to a Bundesliga game. It’s not just the police who are involved in this, but also the social-educational fan projects. However, these stadium alliances have so far only been established in seven federal states.
In response to Sportschau’s request, the responsible State Ministry for Sport and Volunteering also confirmed the considerable potential of such alliances. The final report of the federal-state open working group (BLoAG) “Football without violence – measures to curb violence and strengthen security in football” set up by resolution of the Interior Ministers and Conference of Sports Ministers will also address this: “This will also contain detailed and concrete recommendations on how to further deal with and strengthen the ‘stadium alliances’.”
Of the 16 federal states that Sportschau asked about the benefits of stadium alliances, more than half gave specific comments on this. Almost all of them emphasize the sustainability of stadium alliances. However, they have so far played little or no role in the emotionally charged debate about stadium security.