By Eva Kuehnen
BERLIN (Reuters) - Overt racism among German soccer fans has declined in recent years but a lot still needs to be done to stamp it out especially in the former communist east, a new study said on Thursday.
The two-year investigation by the University of Hanover for the Federal Institute of Sport Science has followed several high profile incidents of racism in German soccer.
“In almost all professional clubs we looked at, all forms of visible and audible racist behavior declined,” said University of Hanover professor Gunter Pilz, who led the study.
“Racism is more openly expressed in the east and that’s partly due to frustration and there is in general less condemnation of such behavior.”
Since the German Football Association (DFB) began clamping down with tougher anti-racism measures, incidents of racist chanting have largely been moved out of the professional leagues and toward the lower divisions – as well as out of the stadiums.
Pilz said racists were using means other than chanting to express their views. He said some fans at a match in eastern Germany had stood to form a swastika in the otherwise empty stands.
Racist fans are also now more likely to chant in buses and trains on the way to stadiums.
The findings were published only a day after some German fans clashed with Slovak police during a Euro 2008 Group D qualifying match.
Before the match, about 180 German hooligans registered by German police were stopped at border crossings as they tried to travel to Bratislava.
“After a brilliant World Cup, reality has caught up with us,” said Alfred Sengle, a vice president responsible for legal issues at the DFB. “This study showed that a lot is still needed to be done.”