German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Berlin's senator for sports Iris Spranger have expressed their outrage at fan violence which marred Saturday's fourth-tier football game between BFC Dynamo and Energie Cottbus, injuring 155 police officers.
"155 injured police officers is the terrible aftermath of these massive riots. Such violence destroys sport. I wish the injured officers a speedy recovery," Faeser wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.
Spranger told reporters: "I totally condemn it.
"BFC now has tell us what it is going to do with its fan base. This is taxpayers‘ money that we had to use with 1,000 police officers there."
Berlin's Dynamo, a club supported by the Stasi - the East German secret police - during communist times, are well-known for having radical sometimes violent fans while Cottbus also have had problems with hooliganism in the past. Cottbus, also from the east, are on the brink of promotion.
"If such excesses reoccur, we will take action against them," Spranger added. "How expensive was the whole thing, how did the damage occur in the stadium, who is paying for it, how do the fans want to deal with this in future?"
The match was deliberately played at a small stadium to avoid huge crowds but there was still rioting and the game had to be interrupted due to the use of flares.
According to the authorities, 116 police officers were injured by tear gas, 28 police officers were physically attacked and 11 hurt with pyrotechnics. Police arrested at least 74 suspects.
