The violence in amateur football reached a sad climax in May when a brawl broke out at a tournament in Frankfurt, in which a youth from Berlin was seriously injured. The 15-year-old later died in hospital. “That shocked us deeply. This incident must be a signal – it’s over now, it has to go in a different direction somehow,” said Ronny Zimmermann, Vice President of the German Football Association (DFB), on Monday at the presentation of a situation report on violence in amateur football.
This includes 3907 cases of violence in the 2022/23 season, discrimination was recorded in 2679 cases. There were 961 game abandonments due to incidents of violence or discrimination. This is slightly more frequent than in the previous season, for which a significantly higher level of 945 had already been identified. In the 2022/23 season, 1,234,154 games were recorded, about 55,000 more than in 2021/22, so the game abandonment rate fell slightly, from 0.08 to 0.078 percent. “That’s not an image that football can live with, and neither can I personally,” says Zimmermann.
The victims of the incidents are in most cases players (3496) or referees (2680). The most common perpetrators are also players (4116) and spectators (2200) of the games. For the situation picture, the game abandonments were recorded by age groups. At 537, more than half of the game abandonments are in the men’s area. In the male A and B junior games, 89 games were canceled each, in the age groups below there are slightly fewer. However, 49 games in the E-Youth section, in which the players are nine to eleven years old, and even 22 in the F-Youth were also ended early. “We can actually rule out the players as perpetrators,” says Zimmermann. These are adults who broke a child’s game.
General increase in violent crime
The Berlin Football Association has already adapted its referee training in view of the increase in violent incidents in recent years. Courses that train match officials in dealing with incidents of violence and discrimination are now mandatory for prospective referees. The voluntary offer has been expanded for active referees, says Theresa Hoffmann, refereeing officer at the Berlin Football Association.
Concrete situations on the pitch are used to practice how the game masters can contribute to de-escalation. She identified the trainers as the second target group, since they could have the greatest impact as those responsible and as role models. Giving them the referee’s perspective and informing them about refereeing helps them set an example of respectful interaction on the football field.
Thaya Vester, criminologist at the University of Tübingen and member of the Violence Prevention working group at the DFB, refers to the crime statistics to explain the more frequent violence. After the pandemic years, there was a general increase in violent crime in Germany, which also exceeded the level before 2020. This is reflected in football, for example in the second year in a row that the game has been abandoned significantly more often. Vester says there has been a lot of movement in prevention work in recent years. All state associations now have contact points for incidents of violence and discrimination.
In addition, however, precautions should also be taken for cases of violence, for example by law enforcement officers in risky games. It is important to be prepared in order to be able to support those affected by violence and discrimination. “There was still a bit of a gap in this regard in the past,” says Vester. The criminologist doesn’t think much of higher penalties. The research suggests that the consequences of criminal prosecution are decisive for the behavior of the perpetrators. However, she also noticed from the feedback on her research on violence in football that many felt the penalties were not high enough.
Anna-Sophia Lang Published/Updated: Recommendations: 42 Anna-Sophia Lang and Daniel Meuren Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 2 Felix Schwarz Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6 Daniel Theweleit, Frankfurt Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 4
The situation report has been prepared annually by the DFB for the past nine years. The games are recorded by online game reports, which are filled out by the referees. This means that there are unreported cases, says Vester. In serious cases, such as a game being abandoned, the criminologist assumes that it will be very minor. In order to get an even more reliable picture, a comparison with the sports courts would be necessary – a project that should be tackled for future situation reports.
