Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia "is to reduce the number of police on duty at some low-risk football matches" within the top three leagues "as part of a pilot project aimed at reducing costs," according to Inveradi & Busemann of REUTERS. NRW's project "comes amidst a row in Germany over who should pay for police security at football matches, with federal states currently footing the bill as they are under pressure to cut costs." NRW Interior Minister Ralf Jäger said that "the state would have 231 top league games this season, compared to 210 matches last season" -- boosting the police requirement by 10%. He said that a "third of all armoured police operations" were now devoted to football policing. Jäger: "I want to use less police because we need them elsewhere."
Last month, Bremen city senate "broke rank from Germany's other federal states and ruled that organisers should pay part of the bill for police security at sports events" (REUTERS, 8/4). The SID reported the German Football League (DFL) "reacted cautiously to NRW's project." League President Reinhard Rauball said, "We were not informed in advance about corresponding concepts. However, the considerations of the NRW Interior Ministry are understandable." He added, "We will see what the result of the pilot project will be" (SID, 8/4).
