Questions and answers regarding the DFB decision on police costs
What exactly is this about?
In the discussions about the clubs' participation in police costs for high-risk matches, the DFB presidium made a fundamental decision (http://www.kicker.de/grundsatzbeschluss-dfb-wird-vereine-an-polizeikosten-beteiligen-1251749/artikel) on Friday. Accordingly, the costs claimed from the DFB by means of a fee notice will be passed on "at least proportionally" to the respective home club. The DFB is "in principle also obligated to do so due to its existing fiduciary duty," it told me.
How did this proceed in the past?
For a long time, the federal states were reluctant when it came to charging clubs for the additional costs of high-risk matches. For ten years, Bremen stood alone in this practice. In April 2015, the Hanseatic city was the first to bill the additional police costs for a high-risk match for the North derby between Werder and Hamburger SV, collecting more than 400,000 euros for it.
In January 2025, the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe rejected a complaint from the Bundesliga, which at the time was still operating as the DFL. The Bremen fee regulation was "compatible with the Basic Law", declared Stephan Harbarth, the presiding judge of the First Senate, at the time. By staging high-risk matches, "organisers depart from the state's limited scope of hazard prevention". According to the DFL's view at the time, the state alone should have borne the costs of citizens' security in public spaces.