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"He started it!"


When clubs with a migrant background make the headlines, it usually has something to do with a dispute or a violent assault. Yet various studies have demonstrated that violence is not primarily a migrant problem. But if they lose it, it can quickly be turned into an ethnic issue.

"If my club play against Bockenheim or Bornheim and trouble starts", observes Klaus Walter, "then it's trouble between two local clubs. But when trouble brews between White-and-Blue and Croatia, then it's trouble between Germans and Yugos."

It would appear that the 'others' are a threat to certain values and conventions in the majority society. Often, players who 'lose it' have been verbally provoked, something that can affect a migrant more than a crunching tackle. "If they hear 'you fucking wog' for 45 minutes", says Gerd Liesegang of the Fair Play Working Group at the Berlin Football Association "they blow a fuse. The Germans are cleverer - you can seldom prove that the insults have been made."

Several prevention models are dedicated to tackling these issues in amateur football. The Lower Saxony Football Association has engaged the Kurdish social worker Hasan Yilmaz to arbitrate in multi-ethnic disputes, raise awareness for on-pitch behaviour and encourage clubs to commit themselves to fairness. Here, interdisciplinary collaboration brought about a change in the association's disciplinary regulations, leading to an increased emphasis on probation and resocialisation. An important basis for this is the networking of clubs, schools and social workers.

In association with Hannover City Council young people have been trained as football mediators. How should I deal with disputes and resolve them? How can I intervene to avoid an escalation? A further goal is to improve the level of awareness and competence to handle such issues among referees and coaches.

Spectators and opponents provoke us and a lot of referees are against us" is a comment Yilmaz often hears from ethnic-based clubs. "They're quick to lose their tempers if they're losing, it's down to their mentality", reply the others. Yilmaz attempts to bring movement into stubborn opinions, though he knows "it's been proved that fouls by foreign teams are often noticed more and punished more severely." Funding for landmark projects such as these is subject to very tight time limits. The very promising prevention model in Berlin was closed at the end of 2005.