BGH ruling: fines for annoying fans permitted

Status: 04.11.2021 10:16 a.m.

Clubs are liable for their fans: Because fans of FC Carl Zeiss Jena set off pyrotechnics in the stadium, the club is said to pay a fine of 25,000 euros to the DFB. The Federal Court of Justice has now confirmed the legality of the sentence.

The German Football Association (DFB) can continue to impose fines on its clubs for the behavior of their supporters and spectators. That was decided by the Federal Court of Justice (BGH). The practice would not violate any fundamental principles of the legal order.

The judges justified the judgment that the penalties were to be assessed as a purely preventive measure; this was also permissible through no fault of the clubs.

The regional league team FC Carl Zeiss Jena, who wanted to have the question clarified in principle – and was now defeated in the last instance, had sued. The legal and procedural rules of the DFB stipulate that the clubs are liable for incidents in the stadium area.

Club has to pay a fine of 25,000 euros

Specifically, there were three incidents at FC Carl Zeiss Jena games in 2018 in which fans burned down pyrotechnics or threw objects onto the field. The DFB sports court sentenced the club to a fine of almost 25,000 euros.

The sanction was not imposed because the measures taken by the association “were not sufficient to prevent rioting by their supporters,” says the verdict. The fine should encourage the club “to use all means available to it in the future to have a moderating effect on its supporters and thus prevent future rioting by the audience.”

The club should also have a satisfactory effect on the fans and take preventive measures depending on the situation, the judges called on FC Carl Zeiss Jena. With the decision of the BGH, this arbitration award is now valid.

(Ref. I ZB 54/20)

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