Bundesliga clubs lose appeal against paying policing costs

The decision handed down by the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on Tuesday means that German authorities may require Bundesliga football clubs to foot part of the bill for games designated as being at a high risk of violence.

In doing so, the court rejected an appeal by the German Football League (DFL), which operates Germany's top two football leagues, against a 2014 decision by the city-state of Bremen.

Since then, Bremen's Fees and Contributions Act has stipulated that the authorities may bill organizers of for-profit events of more than 5,000 people, which could be reasonably expected to be associated with violence.

Constitutional Court President Stephan Harbarth said in the ruling that the Bremen regulation was compatible with Germany's Basic Law, as the aim of the regulation is to shift the costs to the party that has caused them.

German football matches are classified as high risk when violence is expected between fans from the teams involved.

Possible knock-on effect

The DFL received the first notification in 2015 for a Bundesliga match between northern rivals Werder Bremen and Hamburg. The city-state of Bremen billed the DFL for around €400,000 ($410,390) in policing costs. Since then, the total amount of billing has reached more than €3 million.

The DFL had initially successfully challenged the law in 2017. However, Bremen's right to pass the costs on to football clubs was subsequently upheld twice in higher courts, and Germany's highest court has now upheld it.

While the decision so far only applies to Bremen in practice, it is thought that following the ruling, other German states could follow suit and begin billing Bundesliga clubs for partial policing costs associated with high-risk matches.

pfd/km (dpa, SID)