The desire of some Bundesliga bosses for impunity for the escalating fan protests of the past few weeks is currently not realistic.
The sports jurisdiction of the German Football Association (DFB) is already active; in accordance with the regulations, an investigation was automatically initiated by the control committee as a result of every game interruption. A DFB spokesman confirmed this to the Sports Information Service (sid).
Following the procedure, each affected club was asked in writing for a statement. In the past, the punishment was usually based on the length of the interruption. As things stand now, only a political decision by the DFB leadership could lead to impunity.
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Keller: “Exceptional situation for all of German football”
After the fans’ success in the fight against the entry of an investor into the German Football League (DFL), sports director Christian Keller from 1. FC Cologne and CEO Alexander Wehrle from VfB Stuttgart pleaded for this very impunity. “If the DFB sports judiciary were far-sighted, they would also stop the potential punishment requests after the DFL decision and let things calm down,” Keller told the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland”. According to Keller, the past few weeks have been an “exceptional situation for all of German professional football,” which is “not covered by the sentencing guidelines.”
Wehrle made similar comments. “After the last few weeks and the decision we made ourselves – to come now and evaluate every single tennis ball monetarily, I would honestly have a problem with that,” said the VfB boss on “Sky”: “That’s a Topic that we then have to discuss with the DFB.”
Not every chocolate coin is counted individually
Weeks ago, the DFB had informed the Sportschau in response to a request that “the DFB control committee has initiated investigations into all games in which the throwing of objects onto the field led to game interruptions or which were reported by the referee or a safety supervisor.”
Fines could result. The penalty guidelines for the DFB Control Committee stipulate a penalty of 1,000 euros for each thrown object in the Bundesliga and 500 euros in the 2nd Bundesliga. If the interruption lasts for five minutes, the fine is doubled; if the perpetrators are identified, the penalty can be reduced.
Does the throw of each tennis ball now cost the clubs 500 or 1,000 euros? Probably not, because the sentencing guidelines allow for deviations – in “cases that are not suitable for standardized treatment”. The DFB announced that such cases had been treated in this way by the DFB’s sports jurisdiction in the past. This means that each chocolate coin would not have to be counted, punished and paid for individually.