Our regional manager for Lower Saxony and member of Hannover 96, Arne Weinhardt, promotes on World No Tobacco Day 2025 in an interview on Dlf Nova, smoke-free stadiums and reports on how he is campaigning for this:
80% of non-smokers only have an average of 3% stadium capacity to enjoy a smoke-free match. Of course, that doesn’t fit in at all if 97% of the stadium is smoked in. (…)
Everyone has a right to smoke-free air, and of course this must also apply to non-smokers.
He calls on all fans who want a smoke-free sporting experience:
Write letters, write emails, make motions at general meetings!
There are enough positive examples: UEFA, Champions League, Premier League, Netherlands, Skan
Join us in campaigning for smoke-free stadiums where children, young people and adults alike can take part in an exciting experience in smoke-free air.
You are at a football stadium watching your favourite club play. It’s a high-profile game and the stadium is almost sold out. The fans are sitting close together, roaring with excitement, jumping up and down. There is no wind, the air is above the crowd, all kinds of odours tickle your nose. Not all of them are pleasant. But the worst are the plumes of smoke – people are smoking right in front of you, to your right and somewhere behind you. After just a short time, you are hoarse, your eyes water, you cough and your clothes stink horribly of tobacco smoke. The same thing at every game, you think, why do the Champions League finals, the UEFA European Championship finals and the FIFA World Cup manage to have smoke-free stadiums? Why do the English Premier League and FC Barcelona manage it in their Camp Nou stadium?
The football fans of Pro Rauchfrei want to ensure that at least the stadiums of the three Bundesliga leagues become smoke-free, because: sport and smoking don’t go well together! Let’s do a little calculation for the 1st Bundesliga only:
| 15 stadia | =18 – 3 of them smoke-free |
| 8.000 smokers per match | =1/5 of 40,000 spectators on average (non-smoking blocks taken into account) |
| 40.000 | =5 cigarettes per smoker during one match |
| 280.000 – 320.000 smoked cigarettes per match day throughout Germany | =40.000 cigarettes times 7 bzw. 8 stadia |
| 224.000 – 256.000 Nichtraucher müssen mitrauchen | =32.000 non-smokers per stadium times 7 or 8 |
Overview of the Bundesliga and 3rd division stadiums
Current status: 2025/26 season.
Information about which stadium areas are smoke-free, if any, is sometimes difficult to find. We recommend that all clubs clearly and explicitly state the smoke-free zones on their websites, at least in the FAQs and in the stadium regulations. It would also be very useful to include this information in the stadium maps and on the online shop pages for ticket sales. This page has had over 72,000 hits to date (August 2023), i.e. there are numerous fans who would prefer to experience football smoke-free. Smoke-free family blocks are of course only the very first step in the right direction. In fact, the seats in such blocks are often limited, expensive and only for a certain group of people. If the block is small, the positive effect in terms of smoke exposure is very limited. Visitors without children, even in standing areas, have no advantages at all in such stadiums. The opportunity to watch a match smoke-free should be available at a low threshold for all those who value it, ideally for all visitors. Smokers who have problems holding out until half-time can bridge the gap with nicotine replacement products. The protection of health should always take precedence over the possibility of satisfying an addiction.
UEFA provides guidelines for smoke-free stadiums. This provides clubs with very comprehensive information on smoke-free stadiums:
Short guide: https://healthystadia.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ENG-Tobacco-Free-Stadia-Short-Guide.pdf
Main guide: https://healthystadia.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/ENG-Tobacco-Free-Stadia-Guidance-Main-Guide-250216.pdf
The following document contains a detailed explanation of why stadiums should be smoke-free by law and how this law can be implemented. Click on the icon to open the pdf in a new window.
In a letter to the interior ministries of the federal states, the DFB and the DFL, we set out the understandable and good reasons in favour of regulation by politicians, as the issue of smoke-free stadiums is of great importance.
