Police costs in football: solos for Werder? 32 clubs say no

Bundesliga

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Football Bundesliga club Werder Bremen must bear the costs of police operations in so-called risk games alone. The other German professional clubs rejected at their general meeting a solidary participation in the expenses almost unanimously: Of the 34 clubs present - the representatives of the second division Hannover 96 and VfL Osnabrück were missing in Neu-Isenburg - 32 voted against the request of Bremen. RB Leipzig abstained.

"We could not be in solidarity, that would have been the completely wrong sign," said Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge after the two-hour meeting: "A fund would be the open door for anyone who wants to ask the Bundesliga to checkout." Borussia Dortmund CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke said: "There is no reason to subsidize the unilateral action of the Bremen state government from the DFL, I think that the state of Bremen is on the wrong track."

Bremen appealed to the solidarity community

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig had decided in March that the federal states may in principle charge the additional police costs for high-security games to the German Football League (DFL). The DFL had paid in September fees of the Land Bremen for four Werder games in the amount of 1.17 million euros, but half of the sum directly charged to the club. Who should pay the other 584,000 euros, was previously unclear.

Werder had then submitted to the DFL an application for a "reasonable division" of the costs among the 36 first and second division clubs. The Bremen invited the other clubs to vote against the distribution of all expenses on Werder. This would shake the "solidarity community," it said. The Bremen model provided that Werder, the DFL and the respective guest club share the costs.

RB Leipzig is the only club

As expected, the club failed with this request. "We have not seen much compared to Werder Bremen from the principle of solidarity, which many clubs have preached over the last few months," said club boss Hubertus Hess-Grunewald: "We have not got through that all this against the DFL as a whole In the end Werder stands isolated - also to send a political signal. " The association is now considering legal action.

Since the decision of the Federal Administrative Court against which the DFL will refer to the Federal Constitutional Court, other federal states are thinking about following the example of Bremen. From Wednesday, the interior ministers meet in Lübeck. There it will be seen, whether other countries in addition to Rhineland-Palatinate swivel on the Bremen course.