The head of Germany's police union on Wednesday called for all-seater stadia to be introduced here following a series of violent incidents in German football.
All-seater stadia are commonplace in other big European football countries such as Britain and Spain, but most grounds in Germany have an area which allows fans to stand to watch matches.
"Standing places should be abolished, fences raised and each club should be fined 100,000 euros (US$125,000) if violence breaks out," Rainer Wendt told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung regional daily in an interview.
"The interior ministers finally need to stand firm against the narrow-mindedness of the clubs and the leagues," he insisted.
"A football match with several thousand spectators should not have the legal status of a private barbecue."
Wendt's comments come in the wake of this month's promotion-relegation play-off between top-tier side Hertha Berlin and second division Fortuna Duesseldorf which was marred by a double pitch invasion.
The 2-2 draw saw Fortuna win 4-3 on aggregate and earn promotion to the Bundesliga at Hertha's expense.
But the match in Duesseldorf was interrupted as fans fired flares onto the field and invaded the pitch deep into injury time, forcing the players to take refuge in the changing rooms for about 20 minutes and fearing for their lives.
This sparked a call from Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich for clubs to improve the behaviour of their fans.
Friedrich, who is also responsible for sport, has said all 56 clubs in Germany's top three leagues must produce a plan by the end of the summer to improve safety, including a review of standing areas.
"If current measures are not sufficient, then improvements - at the expense of the clubs - must be made," Friedrich told SID, an AFP subsidiary.
"As a football fan, I hope that it does not happen in Germany, like it has in other countries, where there are only seats available in the stadiums.
"It's in the fans' hands and the clubs are not allowed to escape responsibility."
In Britain, all-seater stadia became compulsory after the Hillsborough Stadium disaster in Sheffield, northern England, in which close to 100 people died in a crush on April 15 1989.
Source: AFP
