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| April 1, 2006 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 2, 1427 |
Germany will set security benchmark: British police
BERLIN, March 31: A senior British police officer said on Friday that he expected this summer’s World Cup finals in Germany set new standards in security. Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Thomas, of Greater Manchester Police, told the meeting organised by the German interior ministry that he had been impressed by the arrangements and planning for fans’ security at the June 9 to July 9 finals.
“Euro 2004 was the benchmark for European football competitions. The World Cup in Germany in 2006, from what I have seen over the last two years, and certainly from what I have seen over the last two days, will be the benchmark for World Cup football in the future.”
Thomas said the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal had been the turning point for England fans, who had earned a reputation for hooliganism over the previous two decades.
“I think in that tournament, the English football supporters were able to prove that their reputation for hooliganism and disorder was totally unfounded.”
That was partly due to the steps put into place in England to prevent known hooligans from travelling, but also because genuine fans were sick of the troublemakers.
“Our supporters said, enough is enough, we do not want to be known as a hooligan nation across European football,” Thomas added.
Britain has announced it is sending 79 police officers, including 44 in uniform, to Germany, with some of them given the same powers as their German counterparts.
England fans rioted in the French port of Marseille during the 1998 World Cup finals, and German thugs beat up a French policeman, leaving him with permanent brain damage.
August Hanning, a senior official in the German interior ministry, said Germany feared the “psychological effect” of a repetition of that sort of violence.
“At the 1998 finals we saw the worst scenario of hooliganism, less from the point of view of the small number of injured than from the psychological effect it had,” he told the conference.
He said German police were working closely with their Dutch, British and Polish counterparts to ensure that hooliganism between rival fans did not mar this tournament.—AFP
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