After hooligans forced a Bundesliga game to be delayed bythrowing lit flares at the weekend, Germany coach Joachim Loew is leading thecall for tighter security measures in football stadiums.
Hooligans in the Eintracht Frankfurt fan block forced theirteam's 3-1 defeat at Bayer Leverkusen to be delayed by six minutes afterlighting flares and setting off fireworks.
Referee Wolfgang Stark marched both teams off the pitchamidst safety concerns for the players after the pyrotechnics started landingon a corner of the pitch.
"It is absolutely unacceptable when a game needs to beinterrupted like that," said Loew, who was in the stadium.
"When missiles are thrown thereby endangering otherspectators, it's extremely important to take action against these people withall the power available."
After clubs in Germany's top two leagues voted on December12 to adopt controversial new security regulations, outlined by the GermanFootball League (DFL), safety at football grounds remains a hot topic.
A contentious point of the new regulations involves theclubs' right to demand full body searches for any fans suspected of carryingpyrotechnics.
The images of masked Frankfurt fans waving flares atLeverkusen's BayArena only strengthens the argument for strip searching allfans going to attend a game, says Juergen Klopp, coach of German championsBorussia Dortmund.
"We thought we had a result we could live with,"said Klopp referring to the regulations, which were modified after fans'protests last year.
"It's bad when you see images like this. There isnothing more detrimental to a discussion than if you see pictures likethose."
The German Football Federation (DFB) are expected to imposea six-figure fine and insist Frankfurt play a game behind closed doors as thisis not the first time Eintracht have appeared before the DFB's disciplinarycommittee.
According to German magazine Kicker, the Hessen club hasalready paid 473,000 euros (US$629,450) in DFB fines for their fans' behavioursince 2002.
Leverkusen chairman Wolfgang Holzhauser has said he wants topass any fines his club may face, for their part as hosts, onto the fansresponsible and wants to increase the price of tickets for away fans.
"The rockets flew directly onto the pitch, near to players.It didn't look so dramatic, but if it hit one of the players that is an attemptat grievous bodily harm," said Holzhaeuser.
"Imagine if something like that happened in the middleof Frankfurt?
"Why should it suddenly be possible in a stadium?
"The stadium isn't a place just open to the public.
"Nobody, especially the fans who light those fireworks,are above the law."
Eintracht can escape heavy punishment if they help identifythose responsible for Saturday's pyrotechnics.
"Only if the culprits are tracked down and pointed outto the disciplinary committee can clubs escape heavy punishments on a regularbasis," said DFB vice-president Rainer Koch.
"Eintracht are on board with that." But Holzhausersaid punishing clubs for the actions of individual fans is not the answer.
"The dynamic of punishing clubs by reducing the numberof away tickets, games behind closed doors or reducing points, in extremecases, punishes the wrong people," he said.
"But at the moment, there are few alternatives."
