UEFA continues to impose collective punishments

The Europa League is one of the most popular competitions among match-going football fans. The variety of destinations and opponents make the competition a real attraction for supporters who travel far and wide to support their club. Eintracht Frankfurt supporters in particular have taken the Europa League to heart, with as many as 15,000 fans having traveled to some away games.

However, their last two away matches in the group stage, against Standard Liege this Thursday and Arsenal in three weeks's time, are to take place without away fans. UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body applied the sanction due to what it described as "crowd disturbances"during Eintracht's away game at Vitoria Guimaraes last month, which triggered the club's on-probation punishment from the away game against Lazio last term. While UEFA did not mention a specific incident in its decision, videos posted on social media appear to show a group of a few dozen away fans throwing chairs towards the home end. Some Frankfurt fans who were at the game in Portugal said on social media that the mood had soured after a group of home fans had managed to get to the away end, unhindered by police or stewards.

Christine, who asked DW not to use her real name, is a Frankfurt fan who was in the stadium when the incident happened.

"What I can say is that some home fans came closer to us, there was no segregation zone and barely any stewards and police," she said, albeit adding that she never felt in any danger. "I just thought it was another provocation and that it would stop, which it quickly did."

Christine is one of many Eintracht fans who had already booked travel and accommodation for both games.

"We've given up on Liege, but we will still travel to London as our tickets can't be canceled," she said. "Everyone I know will still travel. It will be the same as against Chelsea last season. We'll try to get tickets with the home fans."

In the Champions League last month, around 200 Red Star Belgrade fans managed to buy tickets in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium home end, despite a UEFA ban on away fans. Due to security concerns, stewards ultimately had to segregate them from the home fans.

"If you ask me, it's less secure to have so many away fans dispersed around the stadium, which will surely be the case against Arsenal," Christine said.

Eintracht Frankfurt have appealed the verdict. Should their appeal be accepted, their fans will be allowed to enter the Emirates stadium away end against Arsenal. The hearing is set for November 13

Effectiveness of collective punishments unclear

It's unclear just how effective collective punishments are in reducing misbehavior by some supporters. Responding a DW query, UEFA said it had no statistics as to whether collective punishments led to a reduction in such behavior.

And not everyone agrees that collective punishments are the way to go. In 2017, Germany's football association (DFB) recomended that its disciplinary body seek to refrain from closing stadium sections or banning away fans.

"The DFB recommends that the court not punish fans who did not take part in stadium-order violations," said the DFB's president at the time, Reinhard Grindel.

In 2018, the DFB launched new guidelines on punishments against clubs whose fans were found guilty of stadium violations; this envisioned using collective punishments only as a last resort in extreme cases. The so-called Strafenkatalog (literally a punishment catalog) has, for the first time, determined the level of fines clubs will receive for fan behavior issues, and made them public for everyone to see. In an interview with German online legal magazine Legal Tribune Online (LTO), DFB Vice President Rainer Koch cited the example of racist chants by large parts of a stadium during a game as an example, saying that the punishments necessary in such a case "would inevitably affect those who were not involved as well."

The trend of reducing the use of collective punishments is not limited to Germany either. Ronan Evain, the CEO of Europe-wide supporter network Football Supporters Europe (FSE), said that most of Europe's top leagues have been moving away from the use of collective punishments. His organization objects to the concept in principle.

"It raises questions of legitimacy when many are punished for the actions of a few," he said.

Ajax appeal fails

UEFA also banned Ajax fans from attending their Tuesday's Champions League game away at Chelsea. Similarly to Eintracht's case, UEFA said the reasons were "crowd disturbances" and "acts of damage." Videos circulating on social media appear to show two groups of people fighting outside Valencia's Mestalla stadium when the Dutch champions played there last month.

Christian Visser,a lawyer who represents football fans in the Netherlands, told DW that Ajax's latest sanction particularly troubled him.

"Sanctioning a club because of problems in the away section is one thing, but making a club responsible for something that happened outside or somewhere in the city seems unfair to me," he said. The club seems to agree, with CEO Edwin Van Der Sar calling UEFA's decision "disappointing and undeserved."

'Fans' sacrifice must be taken into account'

One result of collective punishments is a decrease in trust in UEFA among many supporters, who criticize what they see as a lack of transparency in announcing disciplinary decisions.

"Both the authorities and UEFA must take the away fans' sacrifice into account," said FSE's Evain, noting that some of the decisions over away-end closures were made with as little notice as one week before the match.

As an alternative, Evain suggests both UEFA and the authorities seek to investigate individual suspects as an alternative to collective punishments.

"If you break the law, it's your individual decision, and you should also be punished as an individual" he said. Eintracht Frankfurt fan Christine agrees.

"If you're caught speeding, only you get fined, not the other drivers that share the road with you," she said.