Pyrotechnics in stadiums: doubts about collective punishment

Who should be held responsible if fans set off prohibited pyrotechnics in football stadiums? When it comes to FC Carl Zeiss Jena, the clubs are not, although the DFB provides for it. Now a decision is pending at the BGH.

Summer 2018: Fans of the then third division club FC Carl Zeiss Jena ignited pyrotechnics such as Bengali torches, blinkers and smoke pots in several league and cup games. Lighters flew onto the field, rolls of paper in the direction of assistant referees. The games were delayed, the stadium announcer called for order.

An arbitration tribunal of the German Football Association (DFB) thereupon imposed a fine of almost 25,000 euros on the club for unsportsmanlike conduct by its fans. Carl Zeiss Jena is allowed to use 8,000 euros of this for security technology and violence prevention. The soccer club from Thuringia complained against it. All possible safety precautions have been taken.

“We do everything, but we cannot avoid it,” said the managing director of FC Carl Zeiss Jena, Chris Förster. That is why one is not guilty, but the constitution forbids punishment without guilt. The football manager smugly added that the DFB itself could not prevent Pyro in the stadium.

DFB Federal Court upheld judgment

According to an earlier ruling by the Federal Court of Justice, the clubs can get fines paid to the DFB back from the rioters, but they have to be found first. The Federal Court of the DFB and the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main confirmed the 25,000 euro fine. In legal terms, Carl Zeiss Jena, today Regionalliga Nordost, also fights against the association law of the German Football Association.

Every professional club must submit to him. He refrains from going to ordinary state courts in the event of a dispute. In fact, even the Federal Court of Justice, the highest German civil court, could only overturn the DFB’s arbitration award if it violated public order, the Ordre Public. That was a very high hurdle, said the presiding judge at the hearing in July.

Association autonomy is at stake

DFB attorney Thomas Summerer is therefore also confident about the verdict. If FC Carl Zeiss Jena were right on Thursday, this judgment would weaken the association’s autonomy of the DFB. The usual fines against football clubs for the behavior of their rampaging fans and pyro detonators would then be on the brink.