Schuster welcomes legal clarity after soccer ruling

The Saxon Interior Minister Armin Schuster welcomes the fact that there is now "legal clarity for all sides" following the Federal Constitutional Court's ruling on soccer clubs sharing the costs of police operations. However, the CDU politician left open what consequences Saxony will draw from the ruling. "How we in Saxony deal with the ruling and what conclusions we draw from it is something I will discuss first and foremost with the Saxon Football Association," said Schuster.

He sees the Karlsruhe ruling "as an incentive for the clubs and associations to work together with the police to further intensify the formats that have already been initiated, such as stadium alliances or the top-level talks with the DFB/DFL," said the Minister of the Interior.

DFL complaint against police fees fails

The German Football League (DFL) had previously failed before the Federal Constitutional Court with its complaint against police fees for high-risk matches. The umbrella organization had objected to a Bremen regulation from 2014. This stipulates that the city can charge fees for additional police costs for profit-oriented events with more than 5,000 people that are known to be violent.

The DFL received the first notification of charges in 2015 - at that time for a Bundesliga match between SV Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV. The city state of Bremen billed the DFL around 400,000 euros for police costs. Further notices followed.

This was followed by a ten-year legal dispute in which the DFL has now conceded a final defeat. The Bremen Higher Administrative Court and the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig had previously ruled that the fee structure was lawful. In future, soccer clubs could therefore be charged the additional costs for high-risk matches.