Left and Greens against stricter requirements in soccer stadiums

The Left and Green parties in the Saxon state parliament are against stricter regulations in soccer stadiums. "For a lively fan culture - against the control and exclusion fantasies of the Conference of Interior Ministers" (IMK) was the title of Left Party politician Juliane Nagel's statement on the IMK, which begins today. Among other things, the conference will discuss guidelines for stadium bans, personalized tickets and video surveillance with the support of artificial intelligence (AI). Soccer fans in stadiums have been protesting against the tightening of restrictions for weeks.

Football fans as guinea pigs for security measures?

"For years, all kinds of security measures have been tested on soccer fans in Germany before being transferred to society. We support the protests of the fans and associations," explained Nagel. Even the police figures show that soccer stadiums are safer than a visit to the Oktoberfest, for example. So far, however, no interior minister has called for house bans, personalized tickets or complete video surveillance with AI evaluation.

Greens: Plans come from the mothballs of security policy

The Greens expressed a similar view. "Violence in connection with soccer matches is on the decline," emphasized MP Valentin Lippmann. "The planned far-reaching encroachments on civil rights and interventions in fan culture are purely ideology-driven plans from the mothballs of security policy."

The personalization of tickets would prevent season tickets from being passed on to friends and acquaintances, and was also questionable in terms of data protection, criticised Lippmann. "The plans to introduce mandatory stadium bans as soon as preliminary proceedings are initiated are not only pointless, they also clearly violate the principles of the rule of law."

Lippmann: AI video surveillance criminalizes large numbers of fans

"The crowning glory, however, is the idea of introducing AI-supported video surveillance in stadiums and their surroundings. This will make a large number of peaceful and law-abiding soccer fans, who actually just want to have fun in the stadium, the target of uncontrolled mass surveillance and criminalization," explained Lippmann. He accused Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) of "spearheading" the tightening of restrictions.