Leipzig. For almost a year now, football matches have been kicked off with few or no fans at all, if at all. From the fourth division down, the ball rests, for the second time in months. Nevertheless, the number of so-called “violent sports” has grown significantly during this time. From March to December 2020, the police authority saved a total of 1,056 new people in the network file “Violent offenders Sport” (DGS). This emerges from a response from the federal government to a small question from the Leipzig Bundestag member Monika Lazar and the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group.
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The group had submitted a total of 22 questions. This included how many people in total are recorded in the file, the reasons for which offenses, from which federal states – broken down by country and club. The focus was of course on the question of how the federal government explains the high number of recordings in the period in question in view of the continuing ghost games.
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In its written answer of February 17, the Federal Government stated that as of February 4, a total of 7,841 people were listed in the file, and 3248 with digital images. The reasons for inclusion in the file are primarily a breach of the peace, followed by expulsion, dangerous bodily harm and the identification of personal details. Most of the saved persons are registered in North Rhine-Westphalia (2923), 786 in Bavaria, 764 in Lower Saxony and 506 in Baden-Württemberg. In the east of the country there are 341 in Thuringia, 263 in Saxony-Anhalt, 200 in Saxony, 88 in Brandenburg and 55 in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
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The federal government did not comply with the request for a breakdown by association membership. This could not be done in an open form “for reasons of the state’s welfare. If the listing were published, it would be feared that the problem scenes would misunderstand it as a “ranking”. Violent criminals could thereby be animated to further disturbances in order to ascend in the hierarchy understood in this way (phenomenon of self-staging). “
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And how many people were included in the file from March to December 2020 and, above all, why? The highest number (220) appears in the list as “In custody” in March, followed by 163 in April, 108 in June and 157 in August, 81 in November. A particularly serious breach of the peace was listed in August and November with 46 entries each. But how could that be possible despite ghost games in series?
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The federal government explains the new storage with the time-consuming investigative work. The time of entry in the file is not identical to the time of the offense. In addition, she explains: “In addition, in connection with games closed to the public, fan / disruptor groups sometimes came together, for example in connection with an organized burn-down of pyrotechnics and, in individual cases, so-called third-party disputes.”
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Monika Lazar, spokeswoman for sports politics in her parliamentary group, finds the approach disconcerting: “It still puzzles me that police authorities continue to save fans in the controversial file“ violent sport ”even during the ghost games. I do not find the statement by the federal government convincing. According to the statements of the fan lawyers, for example, not every individual case is checked comprehensively before storage, rather the opposite. ”Lazar also emphasizes the demand for a reform so that fans“ are proactively informed about the storage of their data by the authorities, in order to oppose it legally to be able to fight back. ”She points out that over 1600 of 7800 fans are“ currently saved in the file due to a personal identification or a reprimand ”.
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Lazar therefore emphasizes: “For us Greens it is clear: football fans do not give up their rights at the stadium gate. We finally have to get away from the law-and-order policy towards football fans. We don’t see fans as a problem, but as part of the solution. Many good ideas and projects come from the fan scene that also have to provide better support to politics, clubs and associations: For example, in the commitment against right-wing extremism and other forms of group-related misanthropy, in the prevention of sexual violence in the stadium or in general with the necessary reforms of professional football.
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