@
Social Media
Relevant for investigation
We.Protect.Football.
We.Protect.Football - an investigations firm for professional football.
Threatened online?
More than monitoring: investigation.
A screenshot is not a case. We turn it into one - with investigative experience from police and intelligence service.
We investigate and detect
Digital intelligence after matchday
The Matchday Radar
Every week after the matchday: what is running online against players, referees and clubs. Analysed anonymously, reported without names - with an early-warning radar.
Bundesliga
2. Bundesliga
3. Liga
Women's Bundesliga
Free of charge. Unsubscribe at any time. Privacy policy
Vetted & listed
Bundesliga 2
Current fixtures are temporarily unavailable.
Liga 3
Current fixtures are temporarily unavailable.
Women's Bundesliga
Current fixtures are temporarily unavailable.
The Matchday Radar
Every week after the matchday: what is running online against players, referees and clubs. Analysed anonymously, reported without names - with an early-warning radar.
Free of charge. Unsubscribe at any time. Privacy policy
Bought hate is a market
A study by the NATO StratCom COE shows: for 279 euros, manipulation services deliver around 1,400 comments - and 92% of them are still online four weeks later. Read more in our post.
Read the post on LinkedIn →External link: opens LinkedIn in a new tab.
Who we work for
Professional footballers. Coaches & referees. Player agents & clubs.
We work for the people in professional football who are publicly exposed every day - and for those who carry responsibility for them. Player agents and agencies, clubs, associations, players, referees.
Methodical social media monitoring · In-depth OSINT analysis
Handover-ready for law enforcement
Handover-ready for law enforcement
The difference
The gap between the internet and law enforcement. We close it.
We do not want to be the police. We prepare cases so that law enforcement can act in the first place - thorough, documented, handover-ready.
Any software can collect data. The bottleneck is the analysis.
Perhaps you already filter comments with an AI-powered tool. Good - that layer is always part of our work, and it can even be left out if you have it covered. Our real work begins afterwards: assessing, connecting, investigating.
Reality 01
16 state police forces. Plus the federal level.
Policing in Germany is federal. Different laws, different staffing, different technical capabilities, different capacity - depending on the state and the local office.
Reality 02
Scarce staffing for online cases
The assumption that the police will automatically investigate everything because the law exists is a fallacy. Specialists for anonymous accounts, OSINT cross-connections and escalation patterns are rare - and overstretched.
Reality 03
Developments go unwatched
Authorities respond to criminal complaints - they do not preventively watch how situations develop online. Escalations, changes in pattern, precursor and follow-up activity stay invisible until it is too late.
Between an online incident and an official case file lies a gap - one that neither your own lawyer nor the police can close with their own means. Handing over a thoroughly investigated, properly prepared case can significantly improve the prospects.
What happens after a threat?
Without We.Protect.Football.
✕You must contact the police office yourself
✕Online investigators stretched thin
✕Account deleted - trail gone
✕Unfamiliar with official language - the case fizzles out
✕Connections are never established
With We.Protect.Football.
✓Continuous monitoring · prompt notification
✓In-depth OSINT investigation runs in parallel
✓Handover to the authorities · follow-up delivery of further leads
✓We speak the language of the authorities - handover-ready for you or your (media) lawyer
✓A robust basis the authorities can work with
GDPR-compliant, documented, with a human in the loop. More on confidentiality →
Florian Sprengel - Founder
Founder & Expert
Some things need to be done. Not said.
One lesson from 14 years of investigative work: the most effective steps are the ones that neither the environment nor the perpetrator ever learns about.
Sometimes what you don't see is what counts.
We.Protect.Football. deliberately remains boutique: a small, specialised unit with selected mandates. Follower counts, ratings, testimonials: you will not be able to measure us by these yardsticks. Mandates like ours depend on never becoming public. Measure us in conversation.
Co-Founder · Methodological Assurance
Dr. Elisabeth Sprengel
Research · Data validation. Responsible for the methodological preparation.
Verified profile
Florian Sprengel
Lead Security Intelligence & Investigations · 10 years police & domestic intelligence · Expert assessor for white-collar crime
Background
Former police officer · Former domestic intelligence service · NASDAQ corporate security
Officially security-vetted in 2016 under - Germany's highest security clearance level
Methodology
Expert assessor for
White-collar crime · Security investigations in professional football · Security consulting & threat prevention in professional sport
Football from the inside
Formerly licensed FIFA Player Agent
For authorities to step in and for your existing media lawyers to act successfully, it takes secured traces.
▸You focus on your success - we focus on those who want to disrupt it◂
Much of your daily routine is already handled by others. The same should apply to what is running online against you or your players - we make it tangible and handover-ready.
Player Agents & Players
Professional footballers · women & men
Bundesliga, 2. Bundesliga, 3. Liga, Women's Bundesliga. Daily threats, hate, extortion DMs. Without professional case preparation, proceedings run into the sand - and the perpetrator carries on.
For player agents & clients →
Referees & Coaches
Referees & coaches
One controversial decision - and the threats reach family and home address. Referee representatives and coaching staffs have less PR protection, but the same risk.
For representatives & associations →
Clubs & Associations
Clubs & officials
Board members, sporting directors, press officers, security officers - threatened by organised defamation and external threat situations. Plus a duty of care documented to a recognised standard (DIN SPEC 14027).
For clubs & organisations →
A threat becomes a case file. A case file becomes proceedings.
Re-enacted, anonymised examples based on typical case patterns.
Cross-connections
Three accounts. One person.
Click the dots: Through stylometry, reverse image search and activity patterns, we often find a trace leading to the person behind seemingly anonymous profiles.
Monitoring · Sample timeline
The match is decided - and the hate stream tips.
Hate posts at peak
297 / hour
14× the daily average
3:30 pm kick-off
5:02 pm own goal 73rd minute
+3 h
+6 h
Monitoring · Sample comparison
Gut feeling is not evidence. Data is.
Without monitoring
?
- Scattered screenshots, no full picture
- Most of it goes unnoticed
- Hours of reading, no robust analysis
"It feels like a lot is coming in right now - no idea how much exactly."
With monitoring
Mentions captured12,847
Negative sentiment4,213
Hate-related387
Criminally relevant47
Recurring accounts11
Corporate membership · 1530 Intelligence KG
Member of the German Association of Data Protection Officers (BvD) e. V.
Member of the German Association of Data Protection Officers (BvD) e. V.
Personal expert assessor qualification · Florian Sprengel
Our conviction
Protection against threats, hate and targeted defamation - even when the perpetrator hides behind seemingly anonymous accounts. We recognise patterns, find traces, reconstruct connections.
- For professional footballers, women and men
- For agents and player agencies
- For clubs and associations
From digital trace to physical security.
If you want to defend yourself, you need experts who read traces and recognise patterns. We do not perform IT forensics on hardware - we conduct proactive operational intelligence (OSINT). We identify aggressors, uncover fraudulent acts and secure traceable chains of evidence online.
Yet the line between a digital threat and physical danger is thin. Real security does not end at the screen. Whether it is someone scouting out your home or anonymous letters in your mailbox: we put the puzzle pieces together. We interlink digital intelligence with physical security assessment and deliver a coherent, cleanly documented overall picture for lawyers and authorities.
Against anonymous accounts, a screenshot is not enough. We investigate cross-connections and deliver:
The right information
at the right time
to the right place.
So that a criminal complaint becomes an investigation.
We do not promise to deliver solid findings on every perpetrator - no one can seriously claim that. What we do promise: all traces are brought together, as far as open sources allow, so that prosecutors and police can put the case on the right track immediately. And in the proceedings it becomes visible that you did not treat your digital security as an afterthought.
