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DFB leadership over violence against referees: "That shocks us"

2019-10-30T12:16:56.229Z


In an open letter, DFB President Fritz Keller and the top of the association condemn recent acts of violence against amateur referees and assure support. How this should look, but remains open.



The leadership of the German Football Association (DFB) has commented on the topic of violence against referees in the amateur sector and the referees and the state associations support assured. What should be the support remained unclear. "The numerous acts of violence, disrespect and attacks on referees in amateur courts also shock us, we are dismayed, stunned and affected," said in an Open Letter signed by President Fritz Keller, Vice President Rainer Koch and Ronny Zimmermann and Secretary General Friedrich Curtius.

Any incident "is one too many, any form of violence is unacceptable," the DFB spearhead wrote. "Attacks on the referee are attacks on football, and that must be, there are not two opinions, stop!"

At the weekend, a referee had been knocked out at a county league match in Hesse. In the Berlin Football Association 1500 games were canceled on the same weekend due to a referee strike. A similar strike of the referees had already been in the middle of September in Saarland.

DFB spoke in the summer of "slight increase" of violence

Whether there really is a major increase in violence against referees in German amateur football, is questionable. In July, the DFB described in its "Situation Report Amateur Football" a "slight increase" of cases. 2906 reported violent crimes against referees had given it in the 2018/2019 season in all games of the Regionalliga down (at a total of 1.3 million recorded games), it said in the management report. In the year before, there were still 2866 cases (but at 50,000 games more).

In an interview with DER SPIEGEL, violent researcher Thaya Vester criticized the DFB's questioning procedure: "The problem with this survey is that every scoresheet filled out by a referee is only counted as one case, so if there are four attacks in a match, that's what emerges only as a single case in statistics, "said Vester.

The 37-year-old has been researching for years on the subject of violence and security of referees in German amateur football. In November, her dissertation will be published. Their conclusion is: "Statistically, referees do not live dangerously, judging by the number of matches in amateur football, and most of them do not feel insecure." Asked if they feel safe on the pitch, 70.6 percent of the referees surveyed in Vester's study had responded with "(almost) always" and another 26.1 percent "frequently".

After the DFB had referred in the fall of the Berlin strike on the weekend on the state association, he now said his support: "We as an umbrella organization, the national associations and the referee committees will fully support everything that serves to ensure that all football matches in Germany again take non-violent ", announced the DFB and assured the referees:" We will not leave you alone! " What exactly should be done, however, was not mentioned.

At the same time appealed Keller and Co. to the state institutions to act against violence: "From the public prosecutor's office and the police, we sometimes want a greater zeal for investigation when it comes to crimes on the football field," it said.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2019-10-30

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