Last month, a football match between Argentine club Tigre and Brazilian side Sao Paolo was blighted by allegations of security staff assaulting the Tigre players.
Following a scuffle on the pitch at half-time between the two sides, players claim they were attacked at gun point by security staff and police.
Coach Nestor Gorosito said: "They pulled two guns on us. They ambushed us and one of them pulled out a revolver and put it against (goalkeeper) Damian Albil’s chest. Their security and police also hit us. There were around 20 of them."
With the 2013 Confederations Cup and 2014 World Cup ahead, fresh safety fears are putting a question mark over spectator and player safety in Brazil.
We spoke to the executive director of the International Centre for Sport Security, Helmut Spahn, to find out how these developments might affect preparations for the tournaments.
IFSEC Global (IG): The story of guns being pulled on Argentine players by security forces in Sao Paolo is certainly chilling. What do you make of it?
Helmut Spahn (HS): Events such as those seen in Sao Paulo highlight the need to share knowledge with emerging sports markets including Brazil and to ensure that incidents like this do not happen again.
At first glance, it appears that the security officers in Sao Paulo were not experienced or skilled enough to handle the environment, resulting in the situation quickly escalating and the subsequent headlines and pictures shocking even the most passionate advocates and observers of South American football.
As many will remember from the 1970s and 1980s, over-zealous police and security were the norm at football matches both at home and abroad.
Nevertheless, looking at the situation today, advances made by the security industry over the last couple of decades have resulted in dramatic improvements to the delivery of security at major sport events.
IG: FIFA is pointing to the FIFA Confederations Cup as being the first event in Brazil that will be mostly staffed by private security forces. After the incident in Sao Paolo should this still be the case?
HS: It’s worth highlighting that security is, first and foremost, a customer service with many sports fans now paying ‘top dollar’ to attend major sporting events.
With ever-improving venues and increasing broadcast and sponsorship fees, the expectation for major event organisers to deliver a safe, secure and welcoming event has undoubtedly increased.
One key component for delivering an effective security concept is successfully deploying a skilled and professional workforce that has the right attitude and will follow procedures in high profile and potentially volatile situations.
Whether that workforce is from the public or private sector, it;s important that skilled security staff are used during such a high profile major event.
IG: There were huge security fears ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, but little trouble came to pass. What can Brazil learn from the security operation there?
HS: As FIFA president Sepp Blatter has recently pointed out, the events in Sao Paolo will serve as a warning to Brazil’s World Cup organisers and should be used as a reminder to all major event professionals about the dangers of entrusting positions of responsibility to untrained or inexperienced security staff around high profile major events.
One lesson that local authorities and the organising committee can draw from this incident can be the use of experienced private security during the event alongside appropriate training and education programmes for local authorities and security officers.
During my involvement with the security operations at this summer’s UEFA Euro 2012, the local organising committee – with the help of UEFA – deployed private security inside the stadiums and was supported by the police and local authorities, who secured the outside of the stadiums.
Throughout the tournament, footballing authorities and local Governments in Poland and Ukraine collaborated closely to share knowledge and identify potential risks and developing threats.
Close co-operation between all stakeholders including local Government, the footballing authorities and public and private security organisations is essential to define clear roles and responsibilities in preparation for the event, and to deliver a security concept that accounts for the wider environmental, economic and political landscape.
IG: Security operations at sporting events are usually focused on controlling crowds and protecting players from those crwods, not protecting players from security themselves. Can the players trust the police and security forces or should football associations invest in their own security staff?
HS: Brazil will invest an estimated $900 million in its security forces in a bid to make the 2014 FIFA World Cup “one of the most protected sports events in history”. There are plans to have one police officer for every 50 people attending the tournament’s football matches.
This is a substantial sum of money when you consider South Africa, another country which faces crime issues, set aside a total security budget of $150 million when it hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
With this amount of money being invested for both tournaments, it’s important that footballing authorities and local Governments collaborate closely in their security preparations to ensure international players, coaches, fans and officials feel safe and secure while playing in and/or visiting Brazil.
One thing worth noting is this: while securing stadium venues is crucial, the importance of security planning for fan zones and ‘soft’ venues around the major event is equally essential, but sometimes underestimated.
These ‘soft’ areas include hotels, restaurants and bars which both locals and international tourists can visit. These venues represent an enticing opportunity for criminal activity, such as pick-pocketing and robbery, given that they attract a large number of people to a specific place.
In addition to tournament venues, it’s important that major event organisers take into account and prepare security for these ‘soft venues’ as these facilities will play as important a part in the success of the tournament as will the quality and security of the sporting venues and stadia.
This is a worrisome post, given that Rio de Janeiro will be hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics (never mind it will be winter in Rio). And while there’s a big difference between your average Olympic spectator and a football fan, there will still be big crowds to contend with, and presumably, lots of reliance on security professionals with little to no experience policing the venues.
It hadn’t even occurred to me — here in the Northern hemisphere — that it’ll be winter over there. We already know that G4S won’t be involved in the Olympics after they withdrew from the bid following London 2012. Who will be in charge for 2016, I wonder.
Terry these days the most worrysome task is the security of any event. The games are planned to get the people mind and soul together and create harmony but these days it is the most nerve wrecking job. Most agencies and security experts find it difficult to plan the security plan and declare it fool proof and then pray that nothing should go wrong as they expect that something must be lurking somewhere. A constant problem with no solution.
Providing proper security for an individual event can be difficult enough. But having to securely cover an entire Olympics event leaves a certainty that there will be areas not covered. Once the security falls short, the entire event would begin to suffer. For something as large and significant as the Olympics, this mustn’t happen.
Crowds in high spirits and untrained, over zealous and armed security, potentially a recipe for disaster. Also with all the recent unrest, securing these events is going to be a challenge.
Great to revisit this article actually. Yes, the unrest this year does make you worry. But then ahead of the 2012 Olympics, England has those massive riots in August 2011, and the event in summer 2012 went off without a hitch. So maybe we’re making too much of that?
@Daniel Yuschick I think that preparing a complete security plan for olympics or events with great magnitude is not an easy task. I feel that these games are a great event to show the cultural heritage of a country where they are organized but now the security aspect has changed its essance and now these games have turned to be the show of force and security. I can certainly see sleepless nights for the organizers of event till the time every one has safely departed for their homes.
@Robert Brown I think we need to take security aspects seriously. If one evnt has gone without any hitch doesnot guarentte the ill planning of problem creators. As we have witnessed many bombings in our region, one aspect which I have noted that one bomb goes off and people start to gather to help the injured but once the place is full of helpers the second bomb goes of and the casulaity rate goes much higher then the first bomb. I think we might take it as a hint and never let our guards down as we might never know… Read more »
Follow-up explosions of the kind you describe are among the most effective and the most despicable in my opinion. But what can you do?
With the cost of security, infrastructure etc. I do wonder if the events are worth it. But if that investment serves a city beyond that event well, then it is. Delivering this is difficult. So far London is doing OK. Athens failed. South Africa and the World Cup, not sure. Let’s wait and see if the authorities in Brazil are able to even deliver the facilities in time first, I guess.
@Robert Brown you are correct. There is very little that can be done here. If there is some who has come with no fear of his own death there is no stoppage for him. I think the only remedy is to progress very carefully in these circumstances and avoid a large gathering so the casulaity can be averted or try to present as less victims as possible to avert the next explosion may be. I can only feel these as two workable possibilities.
@Robert Brown very true. The planning part is real difficult one. How can one forsee all the possible solutions to the security problems they can encounter. I think once this part is effectively covered rest is a bit easier. But with the fragility in these cases I feel its really a daunting task to cover all the bases. I agree that we need to wait and see what lies in Brazil.
Well, obviously you can’t necessarily foresee everything, but you can certainly mitigate for an awful lot in advance. Risk planning is the key part of the job, and will have started the moment a bid was one (if not before)
True. This is where intelligence picks up, then, I’d say