Bremen celebrates the return of international matches: A new chapter in the Weser Stadium!

The German national team completed its 1000th international in the Weser Stadium in Bremen in the summer of 2023. In this context, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf expressed positive prospects for future encounters in the Weser Stadium. He emphasized that Bremen is seriously considered, especially for World Cup qualification games and the application for the European women's championship.

The Weser Stadium was excluded from the allocation of international matches due to a long dispute between the state of Bremen and German Football League (DFL). The last appearance of the national team in Bremen took place in February 2012 against France, where the German selection was lost 1-2. Neuendorf believes that there should be no region in Germany that is excluded from the consideration for international matches, and he himself contributed to the return of international matches to Bremen. Eleven international matches have taken place in the Weser Stadium since 1939.

The return of international matches and challenges

The German national soccer team plays against Ukraine in the Weser Stadium on Monday evening. This marks the first international match in Bremen for over eleven years, while the last meeting took place in February 2012. The long period between the games is due to a legal dispute that revolved around the collection of police costs at home games from Werder Bremen, which led to the imposition of a spell against Bremen when awarding international matches.

high -risk games, such as the Nord derby against HSV, require a strong police force that varies between 300 and 1000 police officers. The Bremen authorities would like to hold the DFL for the additional police costs in such games. In autumn 2014, the Bremen citizens decided to raise fees for these police costs. In 2015, the DFL received the first fee notice of 425,718 euros, against which it complained and argued that the guarantee of security was a state core task. The administrative court found the fee decision in 2017 to be unlawful, but the constitutionality of the fee survey itself was not questioned.

The Higher Administrative Court rejected the arguments of the DFL in 2018 and confirmed the appropriateness of the fees. In March 2019, the Federal Administrative Court found that Bremen will be able to invoice the DFL costs for additional police forces. To date, a total of 2,671,000 euros have been charged for high -risk games since 2015, with the DFL paid 1,952,000 euros, but only with reservations. In March 2022, the DFL constitutional complaint against the Bremen fee rule, which has not yet been decided.

Despite the return of the international matches, the DFB holds on the spell for Bremen as long as the fee notices exist for the police costs. Bremen's mayor described this spell as "arbitrary, unjust punishment". The new DFB President Bernd Neuendorf was looking for a conversation with Bremen's interior senator Ulrich Mäurer, which is considered a sign of approaching, such as the Weser-Kurier reported.