Study: More violence on football

On days with professional football games, there is a study in Germany with significantly more violence in the expansion cities.

"Football matches of the first to third leagues lead to 21.5 percent more violence than otherwise to be expected on the respective days of the week," said Helmut Rainer from the Munich IFO Institute on Wednesday.

"Victims are especially young men aged 18 to 29 years. But almost a fifth of the additional violence on matchdays can be explained by attacks on policemen."

For the study, the economic researchers had analyzed records from municipalities in Germany from January 2011 to May 2015. During this period, the Ifo estimates the number of simple personal injuries in connection with football at 38 268. The costs incurred thereby will be taximed at 194 million euros - 44 million a year. Among other things, costs in police, prosecutors and courts were taken into account by loss of loss of earnings and hospitals.

Much of the violence will be committed on the "Search for recognition as a member of a fishing group", IFO expert Rainer said. Fan groups of the opposing team and the police would be perceived as threatening foreign groups, against which their own reputation must be defended.