The German Football League (DFL) has failed at the Federal Constitutional Court in the dispute over a share in police costs for high-risk games. Their constitutional complaint against a corresponding regulation from Bremen was unsuccessful, as the First Senate in Karlsruhe announced. (Ref. 1 BvR 548/22). The federal states are therefore allowed to charge their costs to professional football. “The charging of such a fee, as a professional practice rule, satisfies the constitutional requirements, in particular those of proportionality,” said the Chairman of the First Senate, Stephan Harbarth. This puts an end to the ten-year-long dispute over fees.
High-risk games are games in which clashes between fan camps are particularly likely. According to DFL information, there were 52 so-called “red games” out of a total of 612 matches in the 1st and 2nd leagues in the 2022/23 season. There are 500 to 600 law enforcement officers on duty at normal Bundesliga games in Bremen, and 800 to 1,000 at high-risk games.
In the Bremen Fees and Contributions Act It has been stipulated since 2014 that the Free Hanseatic City can charge fees for additional police costs at profit-oriented events with more than 5,000 people if experience shows that acts of violence are to be expected at the event. The DFL considers the regulation to be unconstitutional.
The DFL received its first fee notice in 2015 – for a Bundesliga game between SV Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV. The city state of Bremen billed the DFL around 400,000 euros for police costs. Further notices followed. According to the city of Bremen, total fees now total more than three million euros.
Even outside of so-called high-risk games, police operations at football games cost a lot of money. In the 2022/23 season in Rhineland-Palatinate, the costs for all games in the 1st and 2nd league, the regional league, the upper league, cup games, a relegation match and an international match totaled around 4.6 million euros. Violence in and around stadiums repeatedly occupied the interior ministers’ conferences – also because of the ongoing pyrotechnics problem in the fan curves.
#Federal #Constitutional #Court #Fees #police #costs #highrisk #games #legal
