Conference in Bremen ends
©IMAGO
The interior ministers of the federal states want to take stricter action against violence in football stadiums. At its autumn conference in Bremen, the status report of an open federal-state working group “Football without violence” was, according to participants, one of the topics discussed particularly intensively.
At the end of the three-day meeting it was said that the interior ministers wanted to maintain the now established cooperation with the football associations after years of mutual remonstrances. People know about the “positive power of football,” said Hamburg’s Interior Senator Andy Grote. For some people, however, violence is part of the stadium experience. They are the reason why football games always have to be accompanied by an enormous amount of police force.
Progress has been made in dialogue with the German Football Association (DFB) and the German Football League (DFL), said the SPD politician, whose federal state has chaired the working group. This includes a nationwide uniform implementation of stadium bans according to clear standards, but also the strengthening of prevention work and stadium alliances. “Other points still need to be worked on,” added Grote.
“It was clear to us that we weren’t done with that, but that there were still a few more construction sites that had something to do with admission, that had something to do with pyrotechnics,” said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU). “Work must continue on the construction sites.” The IMK chairman, Bremen’s Interior Senator Ulrich Mäurer (SPD), emphasized: “Together with the clubs and the fans, we have the common interest that people feel safe in the stadium.”
Plans to tighten security measures in football stadiums have been causing discussions and fan protests for weeks. Ideas such as personalized tickets, comprehensive ID checks, facial recognition and AI monitoring caused protests. However, there were no resolutions in Bremen on these proposals.
The umbrella organization for fan aid also attributed this to the protests. Spokesman Oliver Wiebe said after the conclusion of the IMK: “We note that a large part of the measures that were planned in the meantime and that we criticized were not decided.” At the same time, he criticized the “compulsive fixation on issuing stadium bans”. Football fans in Germany would continue to stand up for their rights in the future.