What finally has to go (daily newspaper Junge Welt)

The worst thing that can happen to a football fan? Not being able to experience his heart club live in the stadium. Apart from easily understandable reasons such as illness or professional obligations, there is another one invented by the DFB: the stadium ban. It is regulated in the stadium ban guidelines – every club, from the federal to the regional league, has to submit to it. That was 156 clubs last season. If one of them issues a nationwide stadium ban, this also applies to all the other 155. In addition, the DFB itself can also issue stadium bans.

Such a stadium ban can last up to five years. However, the penalized fan can request its early cancellation. Which brings us to one of my clients. At one against whom a nationwide stadium ban issued by the DFB is running. My part was this: I wrote to the DFB to describe my client’s situation and to get the stadium ban lifted early. In a way, it was positive that no categorical rejection followed immediately. The amazing thing then happened: the association sent a form that my client was supposed to sign and return. The security department of the DFB actually demanded his consent to be able to obtain information about the fan from the police authorities to be selected by the DFB, regardless of whether it was related to football or not. The DFB neither undertook to inform the client beforehand about the position to be queried, nor to inform him of the result. Everything would remain so completely in the dark. Transparency looks different. No other private organization would seriously consider doing this. Privacy and civil rights are valuable assets for good reason. The DFB, however, thinks once again that it can ignore all principles of the rule of law. Does the association seriously think that such blank forms can win back the fans’ trust?

I have been criticizing the stadium ban guidelines for years – as »substitute criminal law«. No organizer of, let’s say, a shooting festival would ever have thought of issuing a nationwide shooting festival ban. But you can do it with football fans. In other words: The construct stadium ban should finally be abolished, at least put on a constitutional footing.

»Sport free!« from the fan advocate.