Hooligan fears the shadow of Euro 2024. German police are prepared for their biggest deployment ever

BERLIN — Clashes between armed fans. Organized fights between hundreds of supporters. Night attacks. Life-threatening injuries.

A recent rise in violence around football matches is contributing to security concerns as Germany hosts the European Championships.

“We are preparing for every imaginable danger with high levels of mobilization of all security authorities,” said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who stated that the country is preparing for all types of threats, from hooligans to terrorists and cyber criminals. “Police will have a very visible presence,” she said.

Faeser’s ministry confirmed that around 22,000 police officers will be on duty every day during the tournament, with no holidays.

“For the Federal Police it is the largest deployment since it was founded in 1951,” ministry spokesman Lars Harmsen told the Associated Press.

The German police will be supported by police from countries participating in the tournament and internal border controls have already been temporarily reintroduced.

Euro 2024 features games in 10 cities, including four in the densely populated Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region – easily accessible from neighboring countries with some of the best rail connections in Europe.

The tournament presents multiple opportunities for football-related violencewhich is constantly increasing by Europe since 2021. Last season, a fan in Greece and one in France were killed in fights. The station started and ended with clashes that attracted attention and even saw intense football rivalries carried over to other sports.

British police in 2022 reported more arrests in any season since 2013-14, and in 2023 they reported issuing more banning orders than at any time since 2010-11, as well as an increase in arrests since the previous season. In France, more than 100 police officers were injured in football-related incidents during the 2022-23 season. Violence continued last season with several incidents including pre-arranged fights and coaches transporting fans being attacked with objects.

Among recent incidents, rivals Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain fought a pitched battle at a motorway stop before the French Cup final last month.

That same weekend, fans of Dutch club Utrecht clashed violently with police. One officer required hospital treatment and others were treated at the scene.

Also that weekend, the football rivalry spilled over into the EuroLeague basketball finals in Berlin, with coordinated nighttime attacks by fans of Olympiakos and Serbian allies of Red Star Belgrade against fans of Olympiakos’ Greek rival Panathinaikos. Police arrived to find men covered in blood, many injured by baseball bats and bats and one in a life-threatening condition. Red Star wasn’t even playing in the tournament and arrived undetected.

Alliances between hooligan companies are one of the dangers facing German authorities at Euro 2024. Club rivalries between countries reaching the international stage make it more difficult to identify and control troublemakers.

Italian ultras from Atalanta joined Eintracht Frankfurt fans to face Napoli fans before a Champions League game. Atalanta fans helped Eintracht fans bypass the travel ban to enter Italy through an allied club in Calabria.

The season started with the death of a fan in Athens after strong clashes between fans of Greek club AEK and Croatian team Dinamo Zagreb ahead of the Champions League qualifiers. Dinamo fans joined supporters of Panathinaikos, a fierce rival of AEK, underlining dangerous alliances.

“The hooligan companies that are interested in fighting are much more organized than before,” said German football researcher and authorChristopher Wagner he told the AP. “Red Star going down with Olympiakos, that’s the kind of thing people don’t have on their monitors.”

England’s game against Serbia on June 16 in Gelsenkirchen stands out as both groups of fans have a history of domestic and international violence.

Euro 2016 in France was marked by violence Russian hooligans went around Marseille attacking English fans. Many well-known English hooligans were absent as more than 2,000 were banned from traveling. But many of these bans will have come into effect before Euro 2024.

Gelsenkirchen’s location in the Rhine-Ruhr region may be a factor. Fans staying in Cologne can reach Gelsenkirchen in an hour. Those staying in Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Essen or Duisburg are even closer and can get there by car.

British newspaper The Daily Telegraph, citing German police intelligence, reported on Tuesday that around 500 Serbian hooligans planned to arrive.

Other high-stakes games involve Poland, Croatia, Romania, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Poland’s hooligans are among the most violent in Europe. Last November, police arrested 46 Legia Warsaw fans before a Europa Conference League game against Aston Villa. Four police officers were injured.

German groups, such as Eintracht Frankfurt or Schalke 04 Gelsenkirchen, could seek the clash when the teams play in their city.

Rival groups of hooligans have a common enemy – the police. Some 155 police officers were injured in clashes with fans of Dinamo Berlin and Energie Cottbus last month. Most of the injuries were caused by tear gas, suggesting that police had difficulty controlling the situation.

During the riots with Utrecht fans, the police drove a van into the fans to disperse them.

“You would think that a police force with more powerful resources available would actually push back,” Wagner said. He added that police are not always responsible and sometimes remove identification before engaging in confrontations.

Avoiding the police is easiest by fighting the night before the games, or very early in the morning. In May, 200 Schalke and Hansa Rostock fans fought before 6am in Gelsenkirchen.

Violence in football seems to have its own market.

Some people who film fights post them online, and there are specialized social media sites dedicated to showing them.

There is also a video game hooligan. “Immerse yourself in the world of street football hooligans, epic battles,” she promises.

Hooligans can buy a t-shirt with the “Euro 2024, Festival of Violence” logo, while an Instagram account that tracks fights against hooligans pledges to report on “events outside the stadium”.

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Pugmire reported from Paris.

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AP Football: