German football hooliganism threat to Euro 2008

Former East German football clubs are becoming increasingly concerned about the rising tide of hoolinganism and violence amongst their supporters, with experts fearing it could disrupt Euro 2008.

Directors of Dynamo Dresden, whose supporters are seen as the most violent in Germany, seem almost powerless and they have taken the unprecedented step of meeting with their supporters to discuss the future of the club.

Dynamo, the leading club of the former East Germany with eight league titles recently had to forfeit from an indoor tournament for fear of a repetition of the violent incidents which occurred on November 4.

On that occasion, a division five match between a reserve Dresden team and and another leading club from the Soviet era, Lokomotiv Leipzig, erupted in violent confrontations. Police used tear gas to quell some 600 supporters who attacked each other by throwing rocks and launching smoke bombs.

The day before there had been similar violent incidents during a third division match between Dresden and FC Union Berlin.For these two matches, 1,500 police were deployed and 250 people were arrested during an operation which cost two million euros including damage caused by the hooligans. These type of incidents are causing concern but not surprise amongst German football officials."

To do more in terms of security, isn't possible. In the stadiums, everything is going fine, it's outside and after the matches that things are getting out of hand," said Klaus Reichenbach, president of the Football league of Saxony. Pilz, a sociologist specialised in football violence from the university of Hanover said that the football hooliganism is an old problem.

"The phenomenon isn't new: we can't say there has been a resurgence of hooliganism in Germany, in particular in the new regions coming from the ex-DDR (east)," Pilz said.

Dresden supporters have cultivated their nasty reputation, based on racism, anti-semitism and references to nazism, throughout the 1990's, but gained further notoriety with a number of violent incidents in 2006.

"We are witnessing, in the new states, the same thing that happnened in the 1980's and 90's in the west of the country. It's an expression of frustration with unemployment, the absence of infrastructure or a future - the football is only a pretext," said Pilz.

The sociologist points out that problems of violence, in particular in the Ruhr industrial heartland in western Germany, had been controlled by a national approach to security initiated in 1992 which "balanced repression and prevention".

The approach included stadium bans for violent supporters and putting the obligation on the cities which had first or second division clubs to take responsibility for their supporters.

Over the past three years, Dynamo Dresden has employed three social workers to try and create links with the infamous hooligan group the "Ultras", but due to a lack of financial support, one of these posts will be abolished in 2008.

"The public authorities must do more," said Pilz, who fears that Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland on June 7 to 29 will see violent confrontations between supporters, especially amongst those who don't have match tickets and converge on the city centres."

Just because the World Cup was conducted in a peaceful and festive atmosphere in Germany doesn't mean that Austria and Switzerland won't see violent incidents, especially with their easily accessible position in central Europe and their small capacity stadiums," warned Pilz.