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The ball in Germany's professional leagues continues to roll amid a pandemic - even without its supporters in the stadium.
The feared gatherings in front of the arenas were largely absent.
In some exceptional fan situations, the corona rules were disregarded at the end of the past season: Relegation was celebrated in Nuremberg, Bremen and Karlsruhe, and promotion was celebrated in Bielefeld.
What many of them don't know: The celebrations could have put them in a police data collection designed to keep an eye on violent fans.
At least that is what the Federal Ministry of the Interior's explanations suggest in response to a request from SPIEGEL: »In connection with games that were not open to the public, groups of fans and troublemakers came together, e.
B. in connection with the organized burning of pyrotechnics «, says the BMI.
It is one of the reasons given by Horst Seehofer's ministry for the fact that between March and December of last year 1056 fans were saved in the "Violent Sport" file - at a time when football games were mostly played in empty stadiums.
This resulted in a written request from the Greens.
A total of 7841 people have been recorded since the end of January.
The police are allowed to save complex personal data and characteristics such as shape, clothing style, tattoos, shoe size or dialect.
Often you don't even find out that you have ended up in the file
This directory of supposedly dangerous football fans has been criticized by data protectionists, fan associations and several political parties for many years.
Because in order to be listed as a violent criminal, no violent acts are required.
The police only need to record personal details in the context of a football match, for example in the case of simple personnel checks, expulsion, insults or investigative proceedings.
You can land in the file.
Discontinued procedures do not automatically lead to deletion.
And only in Bremen and Rhineland-Palatinate do football fans even know when they end up in this file.
In addition to fan gatherings, the Federal Ministry of the Interior also holds delayed entries responsible for the large number of newly added fans during the ghost games phase: “Before saving, an extensive check of the individual case by the police authorities of the reference association is necessary so that between the time of the offense and the entry can lie for several months «, according to a response from the BMI.
The Dortmund fan lawyer Stefan Witte finds that unbelievable.
From his experience, he believes he knows that a report by the responsible police authority to the Central Sports Information Center (ZIS) is usually made immediately after the weekend of the action on files.
The only way he could explain the entries was that old cases were re-opened and assessed differently: "Due to the coronavirus, the officials may have been able to catch up on investigative work at their desks and identify additional people," Witte told SPIEGEL.
Thomas Kessen from the “Our Curve” fan alliance also thinks this is plausible.
He believes: “From the moment there was no more football, not only the fans but also the police had a lot of time.
Perhaps they dealt more intensively with incidents that were previously classified as trivial, «Kessen told SPIEGEL.
»Branding« for football fans
However, both can also imagine that violations of the Corona Regulation are sufficient grounds for storage.
In August 2020, the month after the fan celebrations from Nuremberg to Bielefeld, 159 people landed in the database.
"The big point of criticism is: You don't know what will lead to an entry," says Kessen.
It is enough to be found in the vicinity of actual conspicuous fans.
Witte criticizes: »There are no criteria or a checklist.
The file is completely non-transparent. ”Each police department can decide for itself from which offense a person is reported to the ZIS.
This leads to great differences in handling.
"This arbitrariness is a big thorn in the side of the fans," says Kessen.
But what are the consequences for fans?
In addition to the collection of sensitive data, an entry in the file "violent offender sports" can have a significant impact on life apart from football: At every police check, whether in car traffic or at the airport, officers are confronted with the entry when comparing personal details, without any background and to be able to see details.
There have already been cases of previous convictions.
This even included travel bans for vacationers if a football game is scheduled at the destination.
And once it is there, it is usually only deleted after five years.
Fan lawyer Witte speaks of a "branding".
Most recently, at the request of the Greens, the federal government disclosed figures on the reasons for storage at the end of 2018.
This shows that around half of the people stored were neither suspected nor convicted of violent crimes.
In view of the more than 1000 re-saves during the ghost games, fan circles are again calling for the file to be abolished.
Fan lawyer Witte describes it in its current form as "meaningless".
It is neither compliant with data protection regulations, nor is it suitable as an instrument against actual problem fans, because it is not linked to the outcome of proceedings: "Any officer who knows the scene is a better source of knowledge than this file," says Witte.
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