Borussia Dortmund reward fans for putting phones away during matches

Borussia Dortmund are offering signed shirts and merchandise vouchers to supporters who resist checking their phones during matches, as the club moves to protect the atmosphere inside Signal Iduna Park. The scheme, which begins on Saturday for the Bundesliga home fixture against Eintracht Frankfurt, is the latest sign of German football’s growing resistance to smartphone culture in the stands.

The initiative works through a voluntary “fan mode” built into the club’s existing app. The feature tracks how often a phone is unlocked during the 90 minutes of play — the halftime break is excluded — awarding points for screen-off time and deducting them each time the device is opened. The highest scorers at the end of a match are entered into a prize draw.

“Over 81,000 people in the stadium, singing, cheering, and holding their breath together: this here and now is irreplaceable,” Dortmund CEO Carsten Cramer said in a statement on Thursday. The club cited growing frustration among supporters over selfies, live-streaming, and social media use in the terraces as the driving force behind the scheme.

No formal ban on phone use is being introduced; participation remains entirely optional. The club is instead betting that the lure of rewards will be enough to nudge behaviour in the stands, particularly on the iconic Yellow Wall standing terrace.

Dortmund’s move sits within a broader trend across German football. Second-division Hertha Berlin announced this month that it was banning commercially produced and monetised video coverage from its fixtures, while still permitting personal photography. Dynamo Dresden introduced similar restrictions on commercial filming in August, citing spectator comfort and the protection of television rights.

The players themselves will face no matchday phone restrictions, head coach Niko Kovac confirmed on Friday. Kovac bans devices during team meals but allows phones and headphones in the dressing room and on the team bus. “The guys are grown up enough to work out what they need to get ready for the game,” he said.

Kovac did, however, express sympathy with the wider message. “I think we could all spend a little less time looking at our phones now and then,” he said. “If we cut back on it we can all concentrate a bit more on other things.”