30 October 2006

Hamburg (dpa) - Officials of the German Football Federation (DFB) and German Football League (DFL) are to meet in Frankfurt Tuesday following outbreaks of fan violence at weekend matches.

The "hooligan summit" has been called by DFB president Theo Zwanziger and his DFL counterpart Werner Hackmann amid concerns of an increase in hooliganism this season which is beginning to mar the domestic game.

Zwanziger has called for extensive reports of violence which led to scores of arrests and injuries to police at matches in Berlin, Augsburg and Pforzheim.

A total of 43 fans were detained after outbursts of violence around the second division match between Augsburg and 1860 Munich and a third-division game between Hertha Berlin II and Dynamo Dresden. There were also clashes involving a group of around 30 fans at the fourth-division game between Pforzheim and SVW Mannheim.

The incidents came two days after a linesman was hit by a cup of beer thrown from the stands during a cup match between third division Stuttgarter Kickers and Bundesliga club Hertha Berlin. The match was abandoned and Hertha, who were leading 2-0 at the time, declared winners.

In addition, all 70 weekend matches in the lowest leagues of the central German Siegerland-Wittgenstein area were called off after weeks of violence towards match officials.

A first-division Bundesliga match and a German Cup match have also been marred this season by racist chances from a section of fans.

The DFB had already called for a meeting with all the country's official fan projects in January or February next year to discuss fan issues.

DPA

Subject: German news