BERLIN (CN) — With the vast majority of the 2.7 million available tickets already sold and participating nations announcing preliminary rosters, excitement for the upcoming European Championships is mounting.
Though most tournament-goers are fixated on the soccer, host nation Germany's organizers and officials have other concerns.
"For me, security has the highest priority," German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a recent news event at Berlin's Olympic Stadium, which will host the Euro 2024 final.
And yet a tumultuous regular season of club soccer in Germany, which drew to a close this past weekend, saw heightened tensions and at times violent conflict between fans and police, setting a foreboding tone organizers will hope to overcome when the Euros kick off on June 14.
Police have used water cannons, pepper spray and billy clubs in frequent clashes with fans throughout Germany's upper tiers of professional soccer this season.
In a particularly hectic case in the first half of the season, more than 100 stewards and police and 70 fans were injured in an altercation before a match between Frankfurt and Stuttgart. In Germany's second division, clashes between police and Braunschweig fans earlier this year left large groups of police and fans injured — including an 8-year-old girl.
Both fans and police acknowledge the heightened conflict, even if they unsurprisingly see different causes for the shift.
"We've witnessed a new level of brutality from police toward fans this season. And we believe this is directly tied to hosting the Euros," Oliver Wiebe told Courthouse News. Wiebe, who claimed fans perceive police as using Bundesliga games as a "testing ground" for games this summer, is part of a Germany-wide organization of legal aid groups that provide support and mediation for fans.
Deputy head of the German Police Union Michael Mertens told Courthouse News the deterioration in fan and police relations is due to specific elements of Germany's fan scene, which he argues "revolves around and actively seeks violence" and is unrelated to the upcoming European Championships.
"I've been a police officer for 44 years. And there have been police operations at soccer matches even longer than I've been an officer. As long as there's been professional soccer, there's been police at matches. That's nothing new. We don't need any practice," he said.
Regardless of how well-practiced German police may be, organizers are expecting to have their hands full. Millions of international visitors will flood into Germany, filling stadiums and packing the country's 10 host cities. Berlin's population will nearly double, with the capital expecting 2.5 million visitors throughout the monthlong tournament.
Hosting such a big event brings a wider set of challenges than the average Bundesliga game.
"Our focus is on threats from Islamic terrorism, hooligans and cyber attacks. We'll have a heavy police presence," said Faeser.
Germany will set up temporary border controls and establish a massive police presence at matches, going as far as cancelling leave for police officers during the tournament. Building off of international police coordination planned for the Paris Olympics, Germany has established the European Police Communication Center in the western city of Neuss to coordinate policing within the country, as well as with police and security representatives from the other 23 nations taking part in the championships.
Police will also trot out new technology, including AI to monitor and predict potential crowd flows in Stuttgart, for the tournament.
According to Mertens, policing a major event in Germany requires a balance between security and respecting individual rights that may have been less of a priority in recent World Cup host nations Qatar and Russia.
"We have to act within the boundaries of the rule of law … . Certain freedoms have to be respected. But freedom has its limits, and once these have been overstepped, the police need to step in," he said.
Germany's Bar Association warned of the potential creation of a "surveillance state under the pretense of fighting terrorism," in a written statement.
Supporters including Wiebe are concerned that fans who pose no threat will still bear the brunt of security measures.
"The threat of potentially violent fans, hooligans and even terror connected to the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East, which are legitimate concerns, are often mixed together," he said. "Soccer fans cannot be framed as potential terrorists; there has been a lack of nuance in these discussions."
Major international tournaments like the Euros tend to attract different sets of fans than domestic club matches, likely meaning a different atmosphere, a different set of challenges — and potentially, fewer clashes between police and fans.
"I think it’s hard to compare fan culture in German professional soccer with a game like Spain versus Portugal or Germany against the Netherlands. There you have really different fan cultures coming together," said Wiebe.
German police have identified certain countries with fans they believe are more likely to cause trouble. Whether they can contain these fans, or deescalate any conflicts that arise, will determine the degree to which the Euros resemble this regular season's rocky relations in the stands.
"We're hoping for good soccer matches. Personally, I'm hoping the German national team sees success. But much more so, I am hoping for peaceful soccer matches without much police deployment," said Mertens.
Follow @braneck
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
