The cascade model is coming – KKJPD, league and clubs disagree
Published: Thursday, Mar 14th 2024, 16:40
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The cantonal justice and police directors (KKJPD) are putting the cascade model against fan violence into force for the next season, as they announced on Thursday. The football league and clubs unanimously reject the model.
However, according to the working group of the licensing authorities, the common goal of all those involved is that the model should not have to be used at all. However, in the event that dialog and other preventative measures do not prevent riots, the authorities must be able to fall back on instruments that allow them to react in a proportionate manner.
The Swiss Football League (SFL) and the football clubs unanimously rejected the model. They considered it to be ineffective, one-sided and disproportionate in practice.
Few riots
"There have never been as few cases of serious violent confrontations around Super League matches as in the past season," said SFL Managing Director Claudius Schäfer, explaining the rejection. He referred to the "All-Swiss Sports Situation Report of the Police Coordination Platform for Sport". Its figures have been collected since 2018.
The SFL also wrote that the model mixes prevention and repression and does not focus on the prevention of future violence, as provided for in the "Concordat on Measures against Violence at Sporting Events" (Hooligan Concordat) introduced 15 years ago.
The league and clubs also criticized the fact that individual elements had already been applied several times with reference to the cascade model, even though the model had not yet been adopted or introduced.
Karin Kayser-Frutschi, Co-President of the KKJPD, expressed her disappointment at the negative attitude of the SFL and the clubs. Nevertheless, the Conference of Cantonal Councillors of Justice remains committed to the introduction of the cascade model: "The public and also peaceful football fans would not understand if the authorities only reacted to massive riots by intensifying the dialog," she said.
Despite the differences, the working group emphasized that the dialogue and cooperation between the licensing authorities, the SFL and the clubs would continue.
Agreement in two sub-projects
The cascade model consists of various stages, with certain incidents automatically triggering predefined measures. The model, which will be introduced from the coming season, comprises four stages. The final decision on the measures to be taken lies in each case with the responsible licensing authority.
The KKJPD has reached agreement with the SFL and the clubs on two sub-projects: the league and SBB have agreed on further partnership-based development in the areas of transportation and fan travel. In addition, the clubs agreed to the SFL's request to introduce dialogue platforms to intensify the exchange with all partners involved in the organization of football matches.
As part of the project, the working group also obtained a legal opinion. This recommends a revision of the Hooligan Concordat for the introduction of personalized tickets against the will of the organizers. The KKJPD is expected to decide on the initiation of such a revision at its spring meeting in April.
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