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ABSTRACT
Clubs, fans and especially the active fan scene in Europe have criticised the penalties given by sports courts for fan misbehaviour as they perceive a lack of transparency and uniformity. The German Football Association (DFB) accepted the protests and criticisms as in 2018 they introduced sentencing guidelines that determine exact penalties for certain offences. In order to examine whether this approach could serve as a role model for other European countries, this paper investigates the fines and changes in transparency and uniformity. Three different studies are conducted. They include an analysis of 981 hand-collected past sentences imposed by the German courts; 26 expert interviews with representatives of the association, courts, clubs, sponsors, police, active fan scenes and ultra-groups; and 127 interviews with stadium visitors. The paper shows that the sentencing guidelines were able to increase the transparency and uniformity as perceived by nearly all interview participants, while the respondents clearly criticised the practice prior to the reform. The analysis additionally reveals a significant enhancement in provable uniformity since sentences are no longer bundled. Given the effects, the guidelines could serve as a role model for other countries. The findings also indicate the importance of raising awareness of the guidelines, introducing some modifications and continuously focusing on dialogue.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. An interruption to the game less than one minute increases the penalty by up to 20%, an interruption of between one and five minutes increases the fine by up to 50%, and an interruption of more than five minutes increases the penalty by up to 100%. The identification of one offender reduces the fine by 25%, the identification of more than one offender reduces it by 50%, and the identification of more than half of the culprits decreases the fine by 75%.
2. The data for the 2019/20 season are incomplete, as the courts have dropped some charges due to Covid-19 in order not to impose additional financial burdens on the clubs. Since the season ended without fans in the stadium, there was no possibility of punishable misconduct.
3. For clarity of presentation and in order to include all 46 data points, the scales of penalties for the 2. Bundesliga and 3. Liga have been adjusted to those of the Bundesliga.
4. Date of the verdict.
5. Each use of a pyrotechnic object incurs a fine of €1,000, which would be multiplied by at least 80 (the number of pyrotechnics) and 1.5 since there was an interruption of more than one minute.
6. Banners consisting of discriminatory statements were excluded, as the statutes state that the guide for the penal catalogue is not applicable in cases of discrimination (DFB Citation2020, p. 41).