Injuries, crime drop in Bundesliga

Football | Germany

 

The number of football fans hurt at German league matches last season dropped by nearly a third, while crime incidents sank by 20 percent, according to a new report.
In their annual report, Germany's Central Information Office for Sports Deployment (ZIS) said injuries at German first and second division grounds had dropped from 1 142 cases in the 2011-12 season to 788.
During the same period, the number of prosecuted crimes also dropped from 8 143 to 6 502.
"Fewer injuries and fewer crimes among the 18 million spectators who attended matches in the previous Bundesliga season is a good figure," said German politician Ralf Jaeger, the interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, in Duesseldorf.


The news was less than impressive further down the leagues with the number of injuries at third division matches rising by just over 50 percent last season.
"The incidents of violence and riots at third division games is still too high," added Jaeger.
The amount of man hours spent policing German Bundesliga matches in the last ten years has nearly doubled from 900 800 to 1.75 million, something Jaeger has dubbed "unacceptable".
"Our goal is to use fewer police officers at future football matches," he added.