Germany tests new security at football matches

North Rhine-Westphalia is home to six of the Bundesliga’s 18 teams, including Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Bayer Leverkusen. The state has two more than last year.

The state’s interior minister, Ralf Jaeger, said Monday that authorities plan to scale down police deployments at games that haven’t seen trouble for three years, but won’t change policing for high-risk matches.

He didn’t specify which teams would be part of the trial.

Jaeger said a third of the state riot police’s deployment time is spent maintaining security at football matches and that would rise significantly if the policy remains unchanged. He said: “I can’t explain that to taxpayers any more.”