Dr. Bahaa Helmy Writes: The Missing Sports Security, Between Reality and Aspiration

Football and stadiums, on 19/5/2013: We have come to know economic security, social security, political security, industrial security, food security, national security and homeland security... yet sports security has escaped our attention, even though it is a blend and a mixture of the pillars and branches of the forms of security mentioned above. In order to understand the nature of this new arrival in the field of security, its elements and its components... we must rely on scenarios for managing a sports security crisis by posing the traditional question... What if? To learn the security and legal perspective, we turned to Major General Bahaa Helmy, with whom we held a conversation, putting to him the following question: What if a sports facility were to collapse? He answered that it is essential to benefit from previous experiences, lessons and incidents, and to draw up a crisis management scenario, such as the collapse of a stand at the Dutch (Twente) stadium in 2011, which killed two people and injured 14 others; the collapse of part of the Fonte Nova stadium in the city of Salvador, in the state of Bahia in Brazil, which claimed the lives of 8 people after they fell from a height of 40 metres, a city that has been chosen to host matches in the 2014 tournament; or the collapse of a fence at the Meknes stadium in Morocco during the match between CODM Meknès and Maghreb de Fès, which left many victims and injuries last February; or the famous Heysel stadium disaster in 1985, when a stadium wall collapsed under the pressure of a crowd stampede after Liverpool supporters broke through the fence separating them from the fans of their opponents, Juventus, causing the deaths of 39 people and injuring more than 600. There are many other horrific disasters that have occurred as a result of collapses or stampedes in stadiums... where death came instead of watching and enjoying the game... In February 1954, 48 people lost their lives at the Zamalek stadium after tens of thousands stormed the ground, the wall gave way, the victims fell, and 47 others were injured. A stadium in Dallas, in the United States of America, also collapsed because of a storm with wind speeds of 70 miles per hour, leaving 70 people paralysed, among them 27 players. In Malaysia, a stadium collapsed in 2009, one year after it was built at a cost of millions of dollars. There was another incident at Zamalek Club in 2011, when part of the wall of the social building collapsed, injuring 4 people. In Turkey, the collapse of another football ground in the south-east of the country killed seven people when the wall of a five-a-side pitch gave way as a result of torrential rain in January 2013... Here the question arises of the safety of sports facilities, their maintenance and engineering works, the security of existing facilities and their equipment, energy sources and backup means, through legislation that sets out the engineering and technical requirements and the equipment that must be available in stadiums, stands and their passageways. And what if a fire broke out in a stadium? These hypotheses are extremely important because they concern very large gatherings and crowds, and therefore none of them can be ruled out, as with what happened at the sports stadium of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran as a result of an electrical short circuit, or the fire at Cairo Stadium behind the second-class stands, where the flames rose so high that the match was cancelled in February 2012, as well as the fire in the western stand of the tennis court at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex in Qatar in 2010, which caused heavy material losses, or what happened at the final of the Tunisian Cup between Espérance and Étoile du Sahel, when rioting and the torching of a car started a fire that spread to the forest next to the stadium, injuring 2 security personnel and 50 fans... Here the need emerges to look into standards, requirements and systems for firefighting and alarms, evacuation plans, and stadium requirements as one of the elements of sports security. And what about the dangers of terrorism? As regards the threat of terrorism... the Boston Marathon bombings in the United States have once again brought to mind the dangers of terrorism, especially when it strikes during sports tournaments and events, and the heavy human and material losses that may result. This incident was preceded by a famous terrorist attack in Munich, Germany, in 1972, known as (Black September), in which 11 athletes were killed; a car bomb also exploded near the Bernabéu stadium hours before a match between Real Madrid and Barcelona in 2002. Nor should we overlook in this context... shootings during matches, such as the regrettable incident during the match between Haiti and Cuba in the 1978 qualifiers, when gunshots were heard in the stadium after the Cuban team scored its first goal; two children rushed to a police officer seeking his protection, and a bullet was accidentally fired from his pistol, hitting them, which drove him to take his own life on the spot. Or when a man pointed his weapon at the crowd during an international match in 1988 between Libya and Malta, causing people to rush to flee and an upper wall to collapse, leaving 30 dead and 40 injured. And the strange incident... when the bodyguards of President Mohamed Siad Barre opened fire on the crowd following a dispute that arose between them, killing 7 people and injuring 18... not to mention the shootings in American schools and the possibility that they could extend to sports gatherings... Is this not enough to seek sports security in Egypt in its comprehensive sense, in order to lay down new foundations and rules defining the role and responsibility of each body before, during and after any match or sporting event, beginning with preventive searches of spectators by officials of the club or organising association under police supervision; that tickets be issued against the national ID number and specify the seat number, block and stand; that all stadiums be equipped with surveillance cameras capable of identifying the face of any person inside the stadium; in addition to pre-emptive security measures; and that the law specify how long recordings are to be kept (one month, for example) and place them at the disposal of the judge, following the practice in the legislation of the countries of the European Union in this regard. But stadium hooliganism is receiving increasing attention in all countries of the world. Has the time not come to confront it in Egyptian stadiums? As for violence and hooliganism at stadiums, whether inside or outside them, there is no end to what can be said. It is enough to remember the Port Said massacre, and the long record of what football stadiums in various countries of the world have witnessed, and the victims and tragic incidents left in its wake, some of which have spread to the grounds of other sports. And we remain incapable of confronting and countering it, so that at times the league is suspended, and at other times matches resume without crowds or flavour, even if this is the first step, while everyone is bewildered and singing a tune far removed from the reality of the missing sports security. If this accursed disease, which has become known as the British disease, is not confronted, the consequences will be dire. An integrated law on sports security, covering its various elements, must be enacted as a radical solution for the stability of the rule of law, and enforced with full rigour together with swift justice, in order to protect society and the entity, sovereignty and authority of the State. What is the concept of sports security? And what are the previous experiences of other countries? Sports security is the engineering and technical security system, together with the precautionary procedures and measures, that achieves preventive security for the citizen from the moment he leaves his home heading to the stadium, with its structural components and various equipment, so that he can enjoy the sporting competition in all its elements, until he returns home safe and sound. For this reason, the International Federation of Association Football became aware that risks and disasters do not result only from stadium violence and hooliganism and terrorist incidents, but also extend to natural disasters, human threats and the infrastructure of sports facilities, and what this requires in terms of strict preventive rules and procedures to preserve the safety and security of spectators, crowds and all the human elements of the sports system, as well as means of transport and traffic conditions. This led FIFA to contract the International Centre for Sport Security to take charge of security at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and to sign an agreement for security and advisory services in this field to ensure the reduction of hooliganism and the use of force and violence in stadiums, while spreading the concept of sports security in its various elements in light of FIFA's vision that it can only be achieved by using all means and measures of prevention and oversight to avoid disasters, and by sound crisis management to guarantee safety, under clear and specific laws covering all aspects of the sports security system, with strict enforcement, since there is no use in searching for the culprit after hundreds, or even thousands, have fallen in an incident resulting from a failure in any element of sports security. What is your vision and conception of the solution? The solution lies in the need to look into the depth of the problem and the nature of the risks threatening sports grounds of all kinds in Egypt, especially football stadiums, as they draw the largest crowds and the greatest excitement; to examine previous experiences; and to take note of the trend among most countries to enact the necessary laws for prevention and remedy in order to avoid these risks, which may include (collapse of a sports facility – fires – terrorist acts – acts of violence and hooliganism – natural disasters – attacks on facilities and property – attacks on means of transport – assaults on persons – crimes of corruption and ticket forgery – criminal activities such as [drugs and counterfeit currency, the distribution of leaflets inciting racism, sedition and incitement – the exploitation and recruitment of children] – or the promotion of deviant ideas and departure from the traditions of society... etc.). We must also benefit from the research and conferences held in the field of stadium security in order to crystallise and fully grasp our vision of the (concept and elements of sports security) we are talking about, and the need to provide means of security and safety for sports activities and events... while taking into account a number of important matters, such as:-

Identifying the risks threatening all stadiums and sports facilities, the elements of the game and the crowds, in light of the lessons learned.
Reviewing all the laws and experiences of countries that have preceded us in this area, whether in confronting acts of violence and hooliganism and their causes and motives, or with regard to the security and safety rules for sports facilities, stadium infrastructure and periodic inspection of their safety, or in the field of insurance against terrorism and natural disasters such as earthquakes, and stadium hooliganism, as in Morocco, or with regard to the safety requirements and means of protection that must be provided in children's playgrounds in public parks and in amusement parks and children's play areas, such as the regulation issued by the General Directorate of Civil Defence at the Ministry of Interior in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, or in the field of combating doping and drugs in sport. These legislations also include the laws issued in (Morocco, Poland, Algeria, Spain, France, Russia, England, California in the United States of America...). This should be done through a joint committee of the Ministries of (Sport, Youth, Justice...), with the possible participation of representatives of civil society organisations and bodies working in the fields of human rights, drug control and children's rights, in order to draw up a draft of an integrated law suited to the environment, customs and traditions and to the protection of society, which would ensure the return of matches as an enjoyable spectacle, in addition to creating an environment conducive to the advancement of sport and its facilities, the conduct of athletes, the components of the sports system and its fans, and dispelling any fear.

This law should provide for the establishment of a national authority or coordinating council for the security and safety of sports facilities and events, reporting to the Prime Minister's Office, to follow up on implementation and evaluation and to manage crises, while establishing mechanisms to activate thorough inspection of all sports facilities, their structures and equipment, and to issue a certificate of fitness on the basis of which the competent authority grants a licence permitting, or not, the holding of matches there, the establishment of facilities there, or their use in the field of sport.

Setting precise and clear standards for sports facilities, the obligations entrusted to clubs, federations and sports bodies and their responsibilities, the powers of the police with regard to sports security and the security of facilities and stadiums, and the penalties for legal violations, including tackling crimes of incitement on the internet.
Defining the powers of the police in enforcing the law, and of the Ministry of Justice to appoint an investigating judge who may take legal action immediately against any offender, even inside the stadium during the match.
Upgrading sports media in coordination with the various universities, given its great impact on awareness and education, and cooperating to develop security, legal and social awareness in order to foster and create a sound and fertile environment for the advancement of sport and fair competition and the restoration of enjoyment and joy, while having educational programmes and schools spread a culture of rejecting violence and respecting others.

In all cases... an urgent plan must be drawn up under the title (No voice louder than stadium security, to eliminate hooliganism and violence), based on two main pillars: The first pillar: the government should announce that it will confront this matter with full rigour as a national objective, continue holding matches without spectators, and consider the possibility of cancelling football activity altogether if any violent incident recurs. In addition, there should be coordination between the Ministries of (Interior, Justice, Sport and Information) to form an urgent committee to consider implementing the following:

Appointing designated investigating judges to handle all matters relating to matches during the coming period, to whom all information and the names of those inciting violence and hooliganism at stadiums would be submitted so that they may consider issuing decisions banning them from entering stadiums, as well as the results of the engineering and security inspections of the stadiums where matches will be held, accompanied by the proposals and justifications calling for these matches to be held, and the responsibility of clubs for meeting their legal obligations in addition to their responsibilities under the governing regulations, including all calls to incitement and the legal monitoring of what circulates on the internet.
Taking swift, deterrent legal action against any offender, immediately.
Drawing up the necessary recommendations and legal views in light of the evaluation of performance and sports security after each match, to guide the committee responsible for drafting the bill, which works in parallel.
Motivating and encouraging the media to engage in the system of awareness and penalties against offenders, and to adopt media campaigns to entrench a sense of belonging and commitment and to confront violence, and to adopt gentle slogans calling for enjoyment, watching the game and rejecting violence.
Considering the organisation of women's five-a-side football matches on small pitches with only girls and women as spectators, under the banner of clean sport or sportsmanship, awarding cups for the best club, the best crowd and the best fan, with media coverage, followed by matches for younger age groups, boys and girls, with spectators of the same age and the same incentives, before starting to hold these matches between young football players, under legal cover as mentioned above.
The possibility of holding some matches between armed forces and police clubs, with spectators drawn exclusively from soldiers sitting side by side, with the participation of military bands and following a disciplined and honourable style of support, everyone carrying the flag of Egypt and performing patriotic songs at half-time. This would aim to pave the way for restoring sportsmanship and the rule of law.
The second pillar: an immediate engineering and technical review of all existing sports facilities of all kinds, urgently and without delay, even if they do not meet the required specifications under the standards of the international federation, in order to guarantee safety and security and preserve the lives of citizens, with the necessary maintenance carried out, in addition to bringing gates and entrances into conformity with the required specifications so as to ensure that the Port Said incident is not repeated, and with rescue and emergency plans drawn up in coordination with the various security bodies, as one of the urgent and necessary solutions that brook no delay or negligence.

This should be accompanied by encouraging clubs and boards of directors to cooperate, by including these issues on the agenda of board meetings and in declared policies, and by having clubs take part in announcing their policies through the various media by means of a monthly press conference after each board meeting, in order to eliminate any tendencies opposed to this national direction