1. sports
2. football

ICSS
I N T E R N AT I O N A L C E N T R E
FOR SPORT SECURIT Y
March | April 2015 Vol 3 | No 1
Follow the money
Football and financing Securing sport
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Foreword
Get the latest edition of ICSS Journal on your iPad and online,
fusing perceptive and timely insights with sport-security issues that
are affecting the sporting generations of today, and of the future
Mohammed Hanzab
President, ICSS
Dear Readers,
T
Commercialisation,
technology change
and globalisation
are presenting
new challenges
ICSS
I N T E R N AT I O N A L C E N T R E
FOR SPORT SECURIT Y
he articles in this issue range from consideration of a historic
and traditional sports venue in Mike Bryant’s review of security
operations at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London (see page 28), to
discussion of a hyper-modern ‘sport’ in Jake Marsh’s paper on
the growing risks of match-fixing and gambling in E-sports (page 70).
There could not be two more contrasting games, but together they remind
us that sport is fundamentally about fair competition and striving to perform:
our role is to build and preserve the framework that makes this possible.
The first Inter-Regional Sports Policy Summit, which was organised by
the ICSS and took place in Lisbon in March, was an important step in helping
build such a framework. The summit brought together representatives from the
Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), the Commonwealth,
the Organization of Ibero-American States, the Cooperation Council of TurkicSpeaking States, the Arab League, and the Organisation of French-Speaking
Countries to discuss good governance, socio-economic development, integrity,
youth development and child protection in sport. As a result of our discussions,
several task forces will now be established to develop regulatory and
informational frameworks that governments can use to implement their own
sports integrity and development policies.
One question sometimes asked is why new legislation and international
government action is needed now. After all, sport has been around for a long
time. The simple answer is that commercialisation, rapid technology change
and globalisation are presenting new challenges that require international
collaboration and a harmonised approach.
The relationship between gambling and sport is at the heart of this debate.
Chris Celestino argues here (page 66) that the United States has a crucial role
to play in focusing international attention on integrity threats to sport, but that
first it has a big decision to make about sport gambling. Outside the US, in
markets over which it has no control, an estimated $406 billion is gambled on
US sports every year.
The commercialisation of sport brings greater resources, but also threats
to a sport’s integrity. Simon Chadwick discusses the latest mega contract for
English Premier League broadcasting rights (page 16), and related issues are
raised in Chris Aaron’s review of the UCI’s report on integrity issues (page 76).
Among the ICSS’s programmes to foster security and integrity expertise,
I am very proud of the launch of the first International Advanced Studies
Programme on Sport Safety and Security Management, which we have
developed with SRH University Heidelberg to encourage the development
of an international standard in training and educating within the sport safety
and security management industry.
We have also been able to share our expertise with security and safety
officials in Russia, most recently during a workshop with the Russian Football
Professional League on 5 March. We hope to conduct similar programmes with
the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) – supporting the AFC in the fields of
safety and security, and education programmes.
For more information visit www.icss-journal.newsdeskmedia.com
Yours in secure sport,
Mohammed Hanzab
2
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
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Contents
Contents
28
Keeping all eyes on the ball
Lord’s Cricket Ground is an iconic cricket venue. Mike Bryant reviews the safety
and security measures in place, and the evolving challenges the ground faces
36
Security networks and organisational culture at
sporting mega-events
Bridging cultural differences in security networks is a vital part of management
at major sport events. Dr Chad Whelan discusses the theories in this field
44
Sport and alcohol: a bad mix?
Richard Giulianotti explores the issue of spectators’ alcohol use. While financial
and cultural links exist with sport, drinking is seen as a factor in fan violence
52
Violence and racism on the pitch: a reflection of failure
Ricardo Moraes/Corbis
James M Dorsey argues that football-related violence is symptomatic of
government failures, and a release valve for the injustices felt by society
Integrity
58
Third-party ownership: a risk to integrity?
Do these agreements prioritise profit over players? Or do they help even out the
inequalities between rich and poor clubs? Andy Brown discusses the impacts of
the ban on third-party agreements coming into effect on 1 May 2015
66
From the sidelines
70
Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy
76
A review of events and developments
A digest of the latest news affecting the sport industry, including incidents of spectator violence from the first quarter of the year
12
Training for safety
Technology
82
16
Ghosts in the machine
Legacy
Fabricated games exemplify how criminals are constantly finding and exploiting
weaknesses. Jake Marsh asks how the industry can protect itself
90
Security and safety
20
4
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Measuring the reputational legacy from Brazil 2014
Jonathon Edwards and Terri Byers used software to analyse the media response
to the Brazil World Cup. Here, they discuss the method, as well as the results
What to do with a windfall?
Professor Simon Chadwick explores how the phenomenal growth in the cost of broadcasting rights could affect competition on the football pitch
Wearable security
Bodyworn cameras, smartglasses and sensors are being adapted for sports,
offering myriad uses for security and athletes, writes Tracey Caldwell
In light of the Hillsborough Inquest, Helmut Spahn discusses the need for an
international standard for security training relating to major sports events
14
Cycling report highlights governance issues
Chris Aaron examines the report into doping by the Cycling Independent Reform
Commission, highlighting the factors that are applicable to other sports
News and opinion
06
The E-sports industry: vulnerabilities and opportunities
The rapid uptake of competitive gaming has been accompanied by allegations of
match-fixing and fraud. But tackling these issues offers the chance to create new
models for integrity that could benefit sport as a whole, writes Jake Marsh
Contents
Vol 3 | No 1
March | April 2015
Claude Paris/AP/PA Images
Governance has not kept up with the globalisation of sport and crime. The
United States could be an important force in combating international threats, but needs to re-evaluate its prohibitionist policies first, argues Chris Celestino
96
The ICSS Sport Index: Marseille Provence case study
Pierre Distinguin explains the ICSS Sport Index pilot study, which took place in
Marseille and evaluated the potential for sport to foster regional development
Integration requires communication
Last word
A major security operation was implemented for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,
connecting different levels of the country’s security forces in a concerted effort.
Dennis Pauschinger evaluates the effectiveness of this approach
101
Securing the Games: a historic operation
Robert Raine, former Director of Olympic and Paralympic Security at the Home
Office, talks about the operation behind delivering a safe London 2012
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
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News digest
News digest
A report on the economic impact that
the 2024 Olympic Games would have
on Boston and the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts was published in
March. The report was commissioned
by the Boston Foundation, which is
a community foundation concerned
with civic life in the Boston area, and
was executed by researchers at the
University of Massachusetts (UMASS)
Donahue Institute.
benefiting Massachusetts companies,
and provide 4,100 new jobs annually
over a six-year construction period.
An estimated $2.9 billion of the
planned $5.3 billion operational
budget for “venue management,
security, IT support, and ceremonies”
would go to new economic activity
benefiting firms in Massachusetts.
The report estimates that 50,000
jobs would be created by operational
“Success will depend upon smart
budgeting and effective planning”
– Paul S Grogan, President, Boston Foundation
This short-term economic impact
assumed the currently proposed total
cost of approximately $9.1 billion as
its base. It said that $2.1 billion of the
estimated $3.8 billion in construction
activity would represent new activity
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
spending in the state in the year
of the Olympics, while tourism,
including the attendance of “Olympic
spectators, media members, athletes,
and officials” would add $300 million
in spending to the Massachusetts
economy during 2024.
While citing these figures, the
report also acknowledges that “there
LFP files fixing complaint
A player from the Serbian football
club Novi Pazar was threatened
with a gun in February after missing
a penalty during a match. Zarko
Udovicic missed a penalty during
a match against FK Rad, which
won 1-0. Two days later, several
men entered the dressing room at
the club’s training ground, drew a
gun and held it in Udovicic’s face,
according to a report by a FIFPro
representative. The player has
since left the club. Mirko Poledica,
President of the Serbian professional
footballers’ association, Nezavisnost,
said: “In Serbia, no fan has ever
been prosecuted or convicted after
violent behaviour against a football
player. That’s why players are afraid.”
FIFPro said: “Like every professional
workman, each professional
footballer is entitled to a safe working
environment. It is up to the football
and national authorities to provide
such [a] safe environment.”
In March, police detained three
former directors of Spanish football
club Osasuna. “Officers from the
national police went to the homes
of ex-president of Osasuna Miguel
Archanco, ex-director Angel Vizcay
and ex-director Jesus Maria Peralta,”
said a statement by the Superior
Tribunal of Justice in Navarra.
FIFA has banned British footballer
Michael Boateng from all professional
football worldwide for life, extending
the English Football Association’s
(FA) own lifetime ban. This follows
the player’s 16-month jail sentence,
which was decreed in December
2014. The FIFA statement said:
“Michael Boateng admitted to
charges led against him by The
FA for several breaches of The FA
Rules, including accepting a bribe,
gift, reward or other consideration
which was, or appeared to be, related
to seeking to influence the outcome
or conduct of a match or competition.
The player also admitted to the
charge of failing to report the offer
made to him... The charges relate to
matches in the Conference South in
the sixth tier of the English football
league system in 2013.”
Darren Staples/Reuters
A proposal for the 2024 Olympics is underway in Boston, with an estimated total cost of $9.1 billion
It adds: “As well as the due diligence
to establish the destination of at
least €2.4 million, the judge of court
two in Pamplona will also investigate
a complaint presented by the
professional football league [LFP] for
the alleged crime of misappropriation
of funds and another of corruption
due to the fixing of games.”
Miguel Archanco, former President of Osasuna, was arrested over money missing form club accounts
FIFA extends Boateng ban
Reuters
In the preface, President and
CEO of the Boston Foundation,
Paul S Grogan said the report
shows that the “Olympics could be
a net economic positive, but that
success will depend upon smart
budgeting and effective planning
to avoid some of the huge cost
overruns that have bedevilled some
Olympics host cities in the past.”
Grogan suggested that the
foundation would continue its
monitoring of the issues, saying:
“the impact of the Games reaches
well beyond specific dollars and
cents, and ranges into issues of the
use of philanthropy, future decisions
on infrastructure investment and
overall community engagement.”
Given that the proposal for
Boston 2024 is currently still in
development, the UMASS report
focused on three key components of
short-term Olympic-related spending:
1. construction;
2. game production and
operations; and
3. spectators and tourism.
are still several significant aspects
regarding the Olympics that are
unclear or uncertain”. It says that
there is ambiguity over long-range
legacy impacts and the danger of
cost overruns that can expose the
host city to financial obligations.
Moreover, it points to competing
priorities for transport and other
infrastructure development between
Olympic requirements and normal
city and state priorities.
With regard to the issues of
finance and potential cost overruns
– which, based on past experience,
are almost certain to happen –
Boston 2024 is developing “novel
approaches to obtain insurance
policies to alleviate the financial
backing responsibility of Boston
as the host city.” Implementing
an insurance-based approach
might open the door to more
cities welcoming major events,
if it can be shown to work.
The report, Assessing the
Olympics Preliminary Economic
Analysis of a Boston 2024 Games
Impacts, Opportunities and Risks,
can be downloaded from www.tbf.org.
Serbian penalty
Jesus Diges/EPA/Alamy
Boston report evaluates Olympic costs
FIFA extended the lifetime ban of former footballer Michael Boateng (right) to reach worldwide
Hackers create
ghost match
An Isle of Man-based bookmaker,
Celton Manx, which operates the
online gambling platform Sbobet,
lost thousand of pounds after paying
out on a ‘ghost match’ supposedly
involving two Belarusian sides,
FC Slutsk and Shakhter Soligorsk,
according to a BBC news report.
Although Sbobet were suspicious
of the fixture, an email purportedly
from FC Slutsk and a false match
report posted on the website of
Shakhter Soligorsk convinced the
bookmaker that the match was
regular, so it paid out on bets. Both
Belarusian Premier League clubs
denied any involvement in the fixture
to the Belarus FA, which reported
the case to the police and UEFA. This
incident highlights the use of hacking
as a means to support match-fixing
operations, which itself indicates a
fairly sophisticated organisational
capability on the part of the fixers.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
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News digest
News digest
Left to right: Mohammed Hanzab, President, ICSS, Emanuel Macedo de Medeiros, CEO, ICSS Europe
and Emídio Guerreiro, Portugal’s Secretary of State of Sport and Youth
The summit reached agreement
that several task forces would be
created to address the issues raised.
These task forces will help drive
action forward on each issue by,
for example, establishing a core of
knowledge relating to regulations
in the field of good governance and
financial transparency; developing a
model for structured National Sports
Integrity Units; evolving the ICSS’s
“The time has come for leaders in sport
policy to come together and share insight”
– Mohammed Hanzab, President, ICSS
the research... very few people have
looked at the interaction between
the government and this sector...
which is very, very, surprising as
most people have some interaction
with sport, most people play sport
at some time, so this is something
that touches everyone’s lives.”
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Charter for Youth Development
and Child Protection; and providing
data on sport’s role in economic
development through the ICSS Index.
Establishing a model for National
Sports Integrity Units will be an
important step in helping countries
implement measures of surveillance
and control, but before they can be
established, a country will need a
regulatory framework in the form of
a National Sport Integrity Policy. It
is here that regional and linguistic
blocs can be influential in forming
such policies and lobbying for their
adoption by governments. Stuart
Page, ICSS Director International
Cooperation & Policy Development
– Sport Integrity, highlighted the
case of New Zealand, where the
“government just passed legislation
that said match-fixing is a crime
and it is seven years in jail. Once
you have got that overhead protection
in your country, things become a lot
easier for local government, sporting
federations, law enforcement, to
come together as everybody owns
the problem”.
Hanzab also confirmed that
the summit would be held again
in 2016 in order to review progress,
as well as to continue the effort
to unite powerful groups, which
include international organisations,
governing bodies and governments
in defending sport.
New drum rules
irk fans in Chile
CAS extends
Yanit ban
Who is bombing
Cypriot referees?
Security is being increased for the
Copa América football championship
in Chile in June, José Roa, head
of the Chilean government’s Safe
Stadium Plan, told Reuters in March.
Drums, which could block exits or
be used to smuggle in banned items,
flares, banners and fireworks will be
banned from Copa América matches.
Roa confirmed that alcohol sales
would not be reinstated and said
that Chile was also working closely
with other participant nations, using
ID checks to prevent known troublemakers from entering stadiums.
He added: “Our aim is to
create a framework so the football
community can enjoy a safe party,
and exclude from the stadiums those
who have set themselves apart from
the football community.” Fans are,
however, unhappy with these new
rules. Reuters reports that one local
Facebook group with 17,000 likes
wrote: “Drums and banners do
not generate violence... we are
fans, not criminals.”
The Court of Arbitration for Sport
(CAS) has increased the ban imposed
on Turkish athlete Nevin Yanit from
two to three years, after an appeal
by the International Association of
Athletics Federations. CAS noted that
Yanit used two prohibited substances,
stanzolol and testosterone, between
August 2012 and February 2013 and
engaged in blood doping. Yanit was
originally banned for two years by
the Turkish Athletics Federation after
testing positive at a competition in
Düsseldorf, Germany.
A group calling itself the ‘Armed
Gate Niners Urban Guerrillas’ has
claimed responsibility for two of five
bomb attacks against Cypriot football
referees that have occurred over the
past year (no one has been injured).
The name is a reference to a
gate at the GSP Stadium in Nicosia,
Cyprus. Whether such a group exists
or is the invention of an individual
or some other entity remains to
be confirmed. Police spokesman
Andreas Angelides told the
Associated Press that a letter from
the ‘group’ made broad references
to corruption within football. This
comes at a time when Senior Referee
Marios Panayi has made allegations
that corruption exists among
Cypriot football officials. Panayi told
Associated Press in an interview that
match-fixing has become common
and is used a way of making money
for officials and politicians. The
Cyprus Referees’ Association has
asked Panayi to assist investigators
by providing specific details.
Matt Dunham/AP/PA Images
Turkish athlete Nevin Yanit’s two-year ban for
doping increased to three after an IAAF appeal
Rio 2016 opts for public security
Brazil will use police and military
forces for security both inside and
outside Olympic venues in 2016,
the Executive Secretary of the
Ministry of Sport, Ricardo Leyser,
announced in February.
“The idea for Rio 2016 was
to have private security, but the
government is going to assess
whether it can be done with the
security forces,” said Leyser, after
a meeting between the Brazilian
authorities and the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) in Rio.
Leyser said this plan is similar to that
of the Pan American Games in 2007,
when National Public Security Force
personnel wore standard civilian
uniforms, and there were few guns
on show. The original idea was to
use stewards inside the stadium,
with the police and military outside.
While costs were cited as a reason
for using public personnel rather than
private security, London 2012 faced
major problems with recruiting and
training sufficient private security
personnel, and it is unclear whether
enough private security staff would
have been available by July 2016.
Silvia Izquierdo/AP/PA Images
The first Inter-Regional Sports Policy
Summit, organised by the ICSS, was
held at the Palácio Foz in Lisbon on
16-17 March.
Representatives from the
Organisation of French-Speaking
Countries, the Community of
Portuguese Language Countries
(CPLP), the Commonwealth and
the Organisation of Ibero-American
States gathered to discuss issues
relating to good governance, socioeconomic development, integrity,
youth development and child
protection in sport.
“The time has come for leaders
in sport policy to come together and
share insight and best practice so
that collectively we may confront the
very real threats to the integrity of
sport,” said Mohammed Hanzab,
ICSS President, during his speech.
Emídio Guerreiro, Portugal’s
Secretary of State of Sport and
Youth; Miguel Cardenal, Spain’s
Secretary of State of Sport and
the Secretary General of the IberoAmerican Council of Sport; and
Lord Jonathan Marland, Chairman
of the Commonwealth Enterprise
and Investment Council, were
among the attendees.
Professor Matt Andrews,
Associate Professor of public policy
at Harvard Kennedy School, observed
that “the complexity of the [sport]
sector has not been matched with
the complexity of the policy or even
Vitor Gordo/ICSS
Inter-regional summit agrees integrity ‘task forces’
The National Public Security Force wore an alternative uniform for the Pan American Games in 2007
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
9
News digest
Become a Certified Sport
Safety and Security Professional!
SPORT
SAFETY & SECURITY
MANAGEMENT
Sport security incidents, January to March 2015
Sport
Football
ADVANCED STUDIES PROGRAMME
Weapon
Category
Location
Victims
Grenade
Explosion
Conakry, Guinea
Fans
Killed
Injured
20/01/2015
1
3
A crowd of supporters had gathered inside a packed bar in the nation’s capital city of Conakry to watch the Africa Cup of
Nations when a grenade exploded. A spokesperson for the police said it was an accidental detonation, and the man who
set it off is badly injured.
INTERNATIONAL ADVANCED STUDIES PROGRAMME ON
SPORT SAFETY & SECURITY MANAGEMENT
‘Certified Sport Safety and Security Professional’
01/02/2015
Football
EDUCATIONAL CONCEPT
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Designed and developed for professionals
Delivered by international tutors and experts
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Legal frameworks and underpinning regulations
Cross-functional integration with operational areas
Managing interfaces with relevant stakeholders
Risk analysis and risk assessment
Mitigation and prevention concepts
Crowd management principles
São Paulo, Brazil
Fans
1
0
05/02/2015
Rocks, sharp objects,
bottles
Fan violence
Malabo,
Equatorial Guinea
Ghanaian fans
unknown
unknown
Ghanaian supporters were injured in Malabo after their team won a match against Equatorial Guinea. After the fans were
attacked with missiles, they forced their way onto the pitch, which caused the match to be stopped for 30 minutes. Two are
believed to have died, but this has not been confirmed.
08/02/2015
Football
Tear Gas
Fan and police
violence
Cairo, Egypt
Zamelek fans
22
25
At least 22 people were killed during violent clashes ahead of an Egyptian Premier League game. Violence broke out
between Zamalek fans and police at Cairo’s Air Defence Stadium, leading to a crush during a stampede in a tunnel.
22/02/2015
Football
For further information and how to apply,
please visit www.asp.theicss.org or contact
advancedstudies@theicss.org
Fan and police
violence
A 16-year-old fan was shot dead in a confrontation between rival fan groups and police after a Rio Grande state
championship. The fight was reportedly arranged via social media.
Football
ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
Gun
Flares, fireworks, chairs
Fan violence
Athens, Greece
Olympiakos player
and manager
0
2
The Greek government suspended the top three tiers of football after fan violence at a Olympiakos v Panathinaikos match.
Panathinaikos fans set off fireworks and flares before kick-off, and threw chairs at Olympiakos players and staff. Police used
teargas to disperse the violent fans.
02/03/2015
Football
Gun
Fan and police
violence
Mogadishu,
Somalia
Fan
1
0
A person was killed in Konis Stadium after supporters from two rival groups clashed. After Banadir FC fans attacked Geenyo
supporters, the police opened fire to end the altercation, leading to a death.
07/03/2015
Football
“As safety and security are priority number one for any
sports event, we welcome the idea of offering a specific
education / training programme to ensure and enhance the
safety and security of all stakeholders, whatever the sports
event concerned.”
Jérôme Valcke
Secretary General
FIFA
Fireworks
Fan violence
Khouribga,
Morocco
Khouribga fan
1
0
A 60-year-old man was hit in the neck with a firework and killed during clashes between Casablanca’s Raja Club Athletic and
Olympique Khouribga.
07/03/2015
Football
Chairs
Fan violence
Birmingham,
United Kingdom
Aston villa fan
0
1
Thousands of Aston Villa supporters celebrated their win against West Bromwich in the FA Cup quarter finals by storming
the pitch and throwing chairs at rival fans during the final minutes of the game. A 20-year-old needed medical attention after
being struck on the head by a chair.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
11
Opinion
Opinion
Training for
safety
Applying an international standard for educating
and training safety and security staff is vital to avoid
repeating past incidents, argues Helmut Spahn
I
n March, the current inquest
into the Hillsborough football
stadium disaster of 1989
heard from the police match
commander on the day, former Chief
Superintendent David Duckenfield.
He told the inquest jury that he “was
probably not the best man for the
job on the day... [and] with hindsight,
I should have thought about my
limited knowledge of the role of a
commander in a major event that
was an all-ticket sell-out, when I
had not been responsible, or in that
responsible position, previously”.
During testimony, Duckenfield
said he was unaware of the crowd
capacities at Hillsborough, which
were set out in the safety certificate;
he failed to recognise the risk of
One cannot expect
to get trained match
commanders if the
educational structures
do not exist
overcrowding caused by the pens
at the Leppings Lane terraces; that
he “should have been more flexible”
about the possibility of starting
kick-off late; and conceded that
operational police orders placed
12
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
“more emphasis on preventing
disorder than public safety.”
Duckenfield also confirmed
that he was familiar with the Green
Guide, the government-issued sports
ground safety manual, adding that he
“had knowledge” of South Yorkshire
Police’s major incident plan, but not
the codeword to initiate it.
Since the tragic events of 26
years ago in Sheffield, there have
been massive improvements in
safety and security management
in the United Kingdom, but as I
see the situation worldwide, there
remains a stark lack of professional
training and education to prepare
club officials, police, and other
emergency services.
Specifically, it is a commonly
acknowledged international
standard for safety and
security that is missing.
Between countries, there
are huge variations in
officials’ experience with
hosting major sport events
or high-level competitions.
There is never one
overarching concept that
can be applied to ensure
safety at an event: tailormade approaches are
required in every single
case, as can be seen in the detail of
the Hillsborough testimony. But it is
possible to inculcate some common
standards based upon a robust
education and training concept. It
could prepare safety and security
Dave Thompson/Getty Images
related personnel for relevant tasks,
and clarify roles and responsibilities,
as well as policies and organisational
structures, effectively ensuring that
they are properly prepared to make
effective preparations for an event.
Basically, one cannot expect
to get trained stewards or security
personnel or match commanders
if the corresponding educational
structures do not exist. In many
countries, no officially adopted
certification scheme is in place
to indicate a person’s capabilities,
or even any regulations clearly
listing the training requirements.
Countries such as the UK and
Germany now have clear legislation
for the training and certification
of stewards or private security
personnel put in place, but this is
only one part of a holistic approach,
and incidents still happen, as seen
during the recent pitch invasion at
a match between West Bromwich
Former Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield arrives to
give evidence at the Hillsborough Inquest. Safety and security
management has improved significantly in the UK following the
disaster, but there are major variations in standards worldwide
Albion and Aston Villa football
clubs in the UK. Safety and security
education must be implemented for
every relevant stakeholder, including
league officials, club management
and venue operators, so they can
understand underlying principles,
challenges and fundamental
approaches to integrate safety and
security considerations into their
plans. They are both cross-functional
tasks, which cannot be delivered by
only one functional area in the entire
event construct.
Investing and collaborating
There are already several good
education programmes focusing
on safety and security training, but
they are mostly focused on national
circumstances and specifications. For
example, the DFB (German football
association), in cooperation with an
academic partner, has developed
a tailor-made training programme
to ensure compliance with national
standards, and the official league
licensing system had made it a
requirement for club safety and
security officers. However, nothing
similar exists at an international level.
It is important to remember
that technology and state-of-the-art
sport infrastructure are only one
factor when it comes to successfully
delivering safe and secure sports
competitions. The other key pillar is
professional sport safety and security
management. Both, integrated in
operations, deliver the required
outcome. As I told an audience at
the European Stadium and Safety
Management Association (ESSMA)
Summit in January, training and
educating those who look after our
safety and security in sport is a
huge responsibility for any major
event organiser or sport venue
operator. However, at the moment,
it is clear that many clubs, leagues
and associations do not provide
enough opportunities for their safety
and security managers to learn from
other sports and major events.
Therefore, governments and
major-event planners need to
invest not only in infrastructure,
but also in education and training
for staff, and such programmes
would have to be considered over
long-term timescales, just as with
the infrastructure planning. The
well-reported problems that G4S
had in supplying security staff for
the London 2012 Olympics resulted
from both an underestimate of the
numbers needed, and a lack of time
to train up sufficient staff.
Education and training is needed
in emerging markets, such as Russia,
the Middle East, India, China and
Brazil, where a private security
industry trained for major sporting
events does not exist or is immature,
and the culture of sport safety and
security is different from Europe or
the United States. All regions require
frequent assessments to improve,
review and refine existing standards,
as well as to achieve commonality
between different countries.
As a first step towards this aim
of having an international standard,
my office has been working with
SRH University in Heidelberg to put
together a programme of study that
can award graduates a certificate
of training as a Sport Safety and
Security Professional. The details of
this International Advanced Studies
Programme on Sport Safety and
Security Management can be found
at the site given below, but the overall
objective is to deliver an international
programme for safety and security
in sports management, dedicated
to global needs and best practices,
unifying international tutors (for
example, from UEFA) as well as an
international participant field to share
knowledge on a transnational level.
Helmut Spahn is the DirectorGeneral of the International
Centre for Sport Security. Further
information about the security
course can be found on page 10
and at http://asp.theicss.org or
from advancedstudies@theicss.org
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
13
Opinion
Opinion
Ghosts in
the machine
Jake Marsh highlights recent cases of fabricated
games and betting fraud, exploring the vulnerabilities
that contribute to the manipulation of sports and what
kind of response is needed to halt these threats
T
he first quarter of 2015 saw
several ghosts getting into
the machines of a number
of sporting organisations,
as websites and information were
manipulated to represent events
that turned out to be non-existent.
The world of equestrianism was
shaken when officials involved in
horse endurance racing in the United
Arab Emirates uncovered a scandal in
March. The governing body’s records
had allegedly been falsified to include
statistics for races that had never
taken place. It is not clear what the
motive was for the alleged act, but
the ghost races do not seem to be
linked to betting fraud.
are critical links between the two
problems that, if left unchecked,
could see the ghost problem grow.
Criminals look for the flaws in new
areas and think they may have found
a vulnerability in the betting data
model’s reliance on the poorly paid
individuals who attend matches to
provide minute-by-minute or secondby-second information. Perhaps even
more starkly than in typical matchfixing, ghost games exemplify how
criminals identify weaknesses in a
system and act to capitalise on them.
Over the past three years,
corrupt betting scouts and the
criminals that control or work with
them appear to have now branched
out from frauds such as
delayed reporting into
ghost games. They have
developed the knowhow of misreporting
match information into
a coordinated operation
of misreporting, and
indeed inventing, a
whole match. Sports
clubs and federations
perhaps need to think
about cybersecurity in a
new light following club
websites being hacked
in order to post fictional
results and match reports.
In the digital age, criminals
have simply diversified their tactics
when defrauding the betting markets
by using the companies’ own tools
The ghost problem is
not nearly as frequent
as standard matchfixing, but there are
critical links between
the two problems
In football, a new ‘ghost game’
supposedly between two Belarusian
teams emerged in February. The ghost
problem is not nearly as frequent
as standard match-fixing, but there
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Fake games can be used for betting fraud.
Criminals use methods such as bribing
data scouts or hacking sport organisations’
websites to disseminate fabricated results
and operational weaknesses against
them. For the criminals this is much
less labour intensive than standard
match-fixing, inordinately cheaper
and easier to pull off, and less risky
in terms of discovery.
In the world of tennis, reports
of more conventional match-fixing
surfaced during early 2015. Since
January, former top 200 player
Nick Lindahl has been charged by
the Australian police; two players
have been suspended by the Italian
Tennis Federation; and a match
between Argentina’s Agustin Velotti
and Ukraine’s Denys Molchanov
was alleged to have been fixed at
a tournament in February this year.
iStock Images
The rumours about match-fixing
in tennis are steadily building and
being debated openly in the public
arena. The tennis authorities must
be monitoring the situation with
concern. The ICSS looked further
into the Molchanov/Velotti match
and found there was suspicious live
betting for Molchanov to lose even
after he won the first set. There were
no confirmed reports of injury or
illness, making it hard for the betting
to be explained. In addition, several
bookmakers removed this match
from their live offering, another
indicator that they may not have
been happy regarding the integrity
of the match. It would seem that
the fight against match-fixing in
tennis has a critical year ahead.
In South-East Asia, the past
few months have seen a surge in
crackdowns on illegal gambling,
most notably in China, Singapore
and Myanmar. There have also been
increased restrictions on Chinese
junkets to Macau. These efforts
are laudable, but, in the absence
of strong licensing and regulatory
provisions, there is a risk that illegal
activity in these regions may be
driven further underground or, worse,
individuals are pushed towards it
through lack of any other choice. A
strong, well regulated and licensed
system may once again be preferable
to outright bans on betting, a big
issue in the United States that
Chris Celestino addresses in this
edition (see page 66).
What is clear is that sport needs
to approach betting and match-fixing
on an international, harmonised
and common-sense basis. This last
point is a plea to all stakeholders
involved. There is no room for
competition in finding solutions to
the most serious threat sport has
faced. At present, the criminals are
more coordinated and organised
than those they are working against.
It is frustrating that some still prefer
to believe betting fraud and matchfixing are not serious or large-scale
problems. Without concerted action
and the development of practical
mechanisms, this disease will
continue to erode trust in sport.
Until there is an enforceable
global standard for the fair and
transparent operation of global sport
betting, criminals and opportunists
will continue to corrupt the system
and sport will continue to be
the victim of uncontrolled global
gambling. There needs to be the
real possibility of establishing strong
regulation over how data on betting
is gathered and exchanged. This will
give authorities a better chance of
catching criminals, and help sport
bodies to sanction those who corrupt
their sport quickly and resolutely.
Perhaps the betting industry
could consider its information and
intelligence flows in order to protect
themselves and their customers
even further. Standardised business
integrity processes for employing
data scouts could be strengthened,
along with better oversight of their
activities. Yet, this is only ever going
to happen through the action of wellregulated entities. Government action
in under-regulated jurisdictions is still
the overwhelming requirement if we
are to stand a chance of protecting
sport. This is all part of creating a
hostile environment for betting fraud
criminals and fixers to operate in, and
for those who commit a crime to be
sure that there will be consequences.
While these weaknesses exist in the
system, they effectively make sport a
sitting duck.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
15
Opinion
Opinion
Simon Bellis/Getty Images
What to do with
a windfall?
Professor Simon Chadwick explores how the
bonanza from the sale of TV rights by the English
Premier League is likely to affect the game
T
he world of football
appeared amazed in
February this year, when
the English Premier League
announced details of the next
contract for the domestic broadcast
of its matches, commencing in
2016. Quite why there was such
amazement is an issue in itself;
after all, the Premier League had
previously revealed that it would
bring forward the tendering process
for domestic rights, which some
speculated was to take advantage
of market conditions.
This decision was a display of
supreme confidence on the part
of the Premier League, as well
as an acknowledgement that the
competition to acquire the rights
was potentially going to be more
intense than ever before. Perhaps
the biggest surprise therefore was
not the size of the bid made by the
eventual winner Sky, but the relative
weakness of alternative bids.
Having pursued an aggressive
rights acquisition strategy in recent
years, it was anticipated that Al
Jazeera, through its beIN SPORTS
brand, might pose a big threat to the
established order in English football.
However, this eventuality ultimately
faded, as did other mooted bids from
the likes of the United State’s ESPN
and Discovery. In the end, as was
the case in 2012, the domestic rights
to broadcast live Premier League
matches were awarded to Sky and BT
Sport. Without a doubt, the League
took advantage of market conditions,
16
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
with the total contract value reaching
£5.1 billion for the period 2016-19
– an increase of 70 per cent on
contract value for the period 2013-16.
During the 2012 bidding process,
BT Sport was the new kid on the
block, paying almost £740 million
for the right to broadcast games;
this time the company paid closer to
£1 billion. Sky, which had paid nearly
£2.3 billion in 2012, had to spend
nearly £4.2 billion this time round.
Staggering in any terms, particularly
in the way that it propelled the
League into second place on the list
of the globe’s biggest TV rights deals
(after the US’s National Football
League). Staggering too, though,
when one considers that the first
Premier League TV deal cost Sky only
£190 million for the period 1992-97.
The implications of Sky and BT
Sport’s joust are now beginning to
emerge; for example, each Premier
League match is effectively costing
broadcasters £10 million in rights
acquisition fees, which represents a
56 per cent increase on the previous
arrangements agreed in 2012. It is
also increasingly apparent that any
club that becomes a member of the
Premier League will, due to these
astronomical figures, automatically
enter Deloitte’s global rich list of
football clubs.
Phenomenal growth
This is hardly surprising as some,
notably the respected blogger the
Swiss Rambler, has estimated what
is likely to be a phenomenal growth
A Sky employee monitors screens in a mobile broadcast truck.
The telecoms giant paid £4.2 billion for domestic broadcast rights
on 126 live Premier League matches each season during 2016-19
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
17
in Premier League club earnings.
The highest-earning club in the
2013/14 season, Liverpool, generated
£97.5 million from television. The
Swiss Rambler estimates that if
the new contractual arrangements
had pertained, this figure would
have been closer to £152 million.
Indeed, additional figures
show that even the club relegated
in bottom place is likely to earn
upwards of £92 million. Furthermore,
clubs relegated from the Premier
League will benefit from increased
parachute payments generated by the
latest TV deals. Parachute payments
cushion the blow for relegated clubs
of the costs incurred by being in the
top league, and the revenues lost
Opinion
than 20 years, and one should expect
BT Sport to be around for some
time to come as well. Al Jazeera will
no doubt continue to monitor the
situation, and one of the US media
conglomerates will no doubt make
a play at some stage in the future.
As such, the short- to mediumterm financial health of the League
seems guaranteed. What happens
longer-term, though, has to be
considered in more cautious terms.
Sky’s bid for the latest contract
will allow the company to maintain
competitive quad-play packages
in the United Kingdom, of which
football is an important element.
That is, instead of simply being sold
a satellite TV subscription as they
In the season following relegation,
clubs receive around £26 million
once relegation has taken place. At
the moment, in the season following
relegation, clubs receive around
£26 million. One estimate suggests
that in 2016 this figure will grow to
a figure of around £39 million.
In a broader context, English
football is set to be propelled light
years ahead of its European rivals.
Already ahead of the game and with
a clear strategic advantage over other
rival leagues, the Premier League’s
new contract looks set to generate
two and half times the revenues of
Italy’s Serie A; and approximately
three times the revenues of both
the Bundesliga in Germany and
Spain’s La Liga.
A golden age?
Viewing these latest developments
in a positive light leads one to
conclude that this is a golden age
for top-level English football, and
that broadcasting contracts are
gifts that just keep on giving. One
gets the impression that the bubble
is in no immediate danger of
bursting. Sky will be back again for
more in the future; the company’s
business model has been driven by
Premier League football for more
18
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
once were, British consumers are
now being encouraged to buy their
broadband internet access, television,
telephone and wireless service
provisions together as a bundle.
Right now, though, several
market analysts are guarded about
the appetite of British customers
to buy products in this way. This
sounds some alarm bells. Indeed,
we have been here before: wild
predictions about the growth of
digital subscription television
during the last decade ultimately
led to the demise of ITV Digital,
inflicting such damage on football
that some clubs are still recovering
from the carnage 10 years on.
As such, while the latest Premier
League deal provides grounds
for optimism and confidence, the
Premier League and its clubs should
be careful not to let such attitudes
morph into arrogance or a failure
to respond to market conditions.
Indeed, the pressure is now on Sky
in particular to realise the potential
revenues of quad-play, while at the
same time stripping away costs from
its business in order to cover the vast
expense of its new TV deal. Should
either of these things fail, then come
2018, Premier League officials and
club finance directors may be feeling
rather less bullish.
For the time being, directors
at the Premier League’s London
headquarters have a spring in
their step, even if others are more
sceptical about the consequences
of yet another blockbuster deal.
Businessman Sir Alan Sugar has
stated that this money will go
straight through football, leaving
very quickly leaving via agent fees
and player salaries. Indeed, some
commentators already foresee an
era of Premier League players
earning £500,000 per week.
The inflationary pressures of
increased transfer fees and rising
salaries are potentially a threat to
the stability of Premier League clubs,
with the revenue bonanza ultimately
proving to be a zero-sum game as
playing talent from around the world
ramp up their demands in a further
influx of overseas players.
There is little doubt that this will
happen, with consequences being
likely for clubs across the English
league structure, clubs overseas,
and for the England national team.
For the past 20 years, rich
English clubs have got richer while
poor clubs seem to have got poorer,
and the cost of making the leap into
Premier League territory often causes
tremendous financial instability
for clubs pursuing their top-level
dreams. For those clubs left behind,
football has rapidly become a sport
monotonously played out against a
backdrop of resigned inevitability.
Ripple effects
Some overseas clubs may take a
similar view, television revenues
having enabled Premier League clubs
to engage in the kind of factory-ship
trawling we observe in the fishing
industry. Even in Spain, arguably the
Premier League’s biggest rival, talent
has been drained out by the likes of
Arsenal and Manchester City and
one senses such migratory trends
will only intensify, especially if there’s
a promise of half a million pounds
a week at the Emirates or Etihad
stadiums. This means that clubs
such as Manchester City will
Phil Noble/Reuters
Opinion
A BT Sport crew member at a Premier League match.
The company paid £960 million for two of the seven
Premier League TV packages for the 2016-19 period
routinely find places in its starting
eleven for Jesús Navas and David
Silva (both Spanish internationals),
but have previously cast to the
margins English players such as
Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair.
Things could well get worse; indeed,
an endless stream of critics are
already recounting the chronicle of a
death foretold. By 2019, the Premier
League may well be the richest sports
league in the world, but quite where
the England national team will be
in the rankings remains to be seen.
The ripple effects of the latest
TV deal aren’t just confined to
players’ wallets and club bottom
lines. The grassroots of English
football, for so long the Premier
League’s undernourished sibling,
has highlighted how stark the divide
has now become between the top
and lower levels of the game. While
the Premier League argues that
it has a progressive approach to
revenue redistribution, which is
true in comparison to other countries,
such as Spain, many people claim
this mode does not go far enough in
securing the heart and soul of the
English grassroots game.
Impact on fans
Nor are fans happy; mirroring the
anti-corporate sentiment seen in
some other parts of Europe, fans of
Premier League club Crystal Palace
recently staged a protest questioning
how the TV deal will benefit them.
Ticket prices for Premier League
games have risen dramatically in
recent years, and calls are being
made for some of the League’s
latest windfall to be used to
subsidise ticket prices.
Unless there are tangible
developments in such areas, fan
unrest or disinterest is a distinct
possibility. Quite where this might
lead is a moot point: keep in mind
that when the Premier League began
more than 20 years ago, ticket sales
accounted for a large proportion
of most clubs’ revenues. Now, TV
revenues account for the majority
of most clubs’ revenues.
There is no doubt that the
Premier League is a commercial
phenomenon, a driver of industrial
activity and a cultural asset. Its
strengths and successes, especially
in terms of revenues generated by
TV deals, are something to rival the
achievements of other successful
businesses. But with success comes
responsibility – to football in general,
to clubs, to players, to fans and to
communities. The Premier League
needs to get the balance right
between revenue generation and
commercial success, and its duty in
ensuring the future health of English
football and the preservation of its
illustrious history.
Simon Chadwick is Director of the
Centre for the International Business
of Sport, Coventry University
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
19
Security and safety
Security and safety
Integration requires
communication
Dennis Pauschinger describes the security operations around Maracanã
Stadium in Rio de Janeiro during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, discussing some
of the weaknesses, and highlighting gaps between rhetoric and performance
Ricardo Moraes/Corbis
O
n 18 June 2014, as Spain and Chile played
their FIFA World Cup match in Rio de
Janeiro’s iconic Maracanã Stadium, the
author observed the situation outside the
gates. The security perimeter around the stadium,
crowded with fans just an hour before, now contained
only FIFA staff, security and safety agents, and some
lost fans, late for the first half of the match. A civil
police officer invited me to walk with him around the
outer security perimeter to check how the barriers had
been positioned to secure the area. The flashing of
red military police lights was the only thing disturbing
the stillness, other than the sound of fans chanting:
“Chi, Chi, Chi, le, le, le, viva Chile!”
Almost at the end of our tour of the perimeter,
we ran into a military checkpoint. When the military
police asked for our identification, the civil officer,
annoyed, presented his police badge and pulled out his
identification, then pointed towards the mobile police
station (DPM), which was in sight of where we stood
near Gate F. But the military police refused to let us
pass, and, after considerable argument, the civil agent
called a colleague to mediate the situation. Even though
he was in a civil police vehicle, the military police still
refused to let us continue. The sense of escalation was
palpable. After further mediation by the colleague, we
were finally allowed to cross the line and return to the
DPM, just a few yards away.
Security personnel line up outside Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium
during the 2014 FIFA World Cup, which saw a major security
operation integrating various levels of the country’s security forces
20
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21
Security and safety
Integrating and cooperating
The core elements of the Brazilian World Cup security
plan were the Integrated Command and Control Centres
(Centro Integrado de Comando e Controle [CICC]).
Partly financed with federal money, these were set up
in each of the 12 host cities to ensure the integration of
the three levels of the country’s policing system: federal,
state and municipality. To mitigate tensions and leverage
cooperation, many security institutions worked together
in the CICCs. In addition, a national centre in the capital,
Brasília, was deployed as the spearhead of the other 12
regional CICCs. In each World Cup stadium, local centres
provided information from within. In Rio de Janeiro’s case,
mobile command centres were held ready to be positioned
wherever needed: near to the Brazilian national team
training ground in Granja Comary and, during game days, in
the external security perimeter area around the Maracanã.
The security operation had a very specific chain of
communication governing how information circulated
between the various CICCs. The effort to integrate every
security organisation involved in the World Cup plan was
a considerable step into new territory for Brazilian security
during the World Cup, in part based on the public-security
policy that was put in place in Rio de Janeiro prior to the
event. The Brazilian authorities were mindful that interagency conflicts would not benefit tournament security.
Rio de Janeiro’s civil police are probably Brazil’s most
modern and best-equipped investigatory force. During
the course of the World Cup, the institution inaugurated
Police City, a large complex outside Rio’s centre, which
is home to specialised investigation units, such as the
drug department and special forces. The latter, known as
the Coordination of Special Resources – Coordenadoria
de Recursos Especiais (CORE) – performed the role of
checking delegation buses and secondary events for
explosives, as well as keeping a tactical emergency team
ready in case of hijacks. However, CORE is unmistakably
a militarised unit of the civil police, and its members all
too often say clearly that they are involved in a bloody
urban war when deployed to favelas.
Other very specific civil police activities in the
World Cup security planning included operations to
contain ticket touts, the falsification of licensed products
and sex tourism. The civil police also operated with
specialised police departments and specially trained
police officers in order to assist tourists. A part of this
strategy was the federally financed DPM located in the
external security perimeter at the Maracanã.
Security zones
Security was omnipresent in the Maracanã borough,
where it became clear what global security requirements
meant for the host: helicopters skimming the stadium,
militarised escort services for the player delegations and
a putatively isolated territory. The
exit of the Maracanã metro station
features a bridge providing access
to the stadium. On the nearby grass
strip, the police command structure
was allocated during game days and
comprised the policing triangle of
military police, the mobile CICC and
the DPM, with the attachment of
mobile forensic laboratories.
The military police used
multiple special units in order to
patrol the stadium vicinity: riot police, elite militarised
units, special event troops – which are trained to escort
football fans – and ordinary policing forces that circled
the area constantly. The mobile CICC had been equipped
to the same level as the regional command centre. In
addition to providing an emergency conference space, it
furnished a holistic view of events around the Maracanã
borough through various flat screens that provided
officers with images from digital cameras – including
static devices and ones that were mounted on military
police vehicles – as well as digital maps to localise
GPS-equipped police vehicles. The military police
mobile observation platform accessed cameras from two
helicopters that utilised spotlights and infrared devices.
These technologies could be used in order to survey any
The effort to integrate every security
organisation involved in the World Cup
plan was a considerable step into new
territory for Brazil’s governance
governance, and, in order to understand the importance
of this integration, it is necessary to take a closer look
at Brazil’s general public security organisation.
Brazil has two main police forces, which constitute the
backbone of public security and are controlled by the state
governments. The military police are responsible for street
patrols, as well as crime prevention, while the civil police
investigate. In addition, municipal guards are responsible,
among other duties, for the security of public squares
and other public areas managed by the city council.
Federal police handle state border-crossing investigations
and immigration. Despite the different allocation of
responsibility, police forces usually compete for leadership
in the public-security sector. Consequently, there was a
need to bring the different policing institutions together
22
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
A security official looks over tickets before a match.
Complex security arrangements, leading to conflict and
inconsistent ticket controls, were apparent during the event
Celso Junior/Getty
This experience highlighted some of the security
issues relating to interaction and the cultural differences
between various policing organisations at the 2014 Brazil
World Cup. This article attempts to place the local
policing operation at the World Cup into the context of
the wider Brazilian governmental security concept. This
security plan was based on three main pillars: ordinary
policing, surveillance technologies and techniques, and
the integration of all relevant security forces.
Security and safety
protesters and make decisions about moving security
forces based on their geographical situation.
During the World Cup, public spaces around the
stadia were transformed into highly controlled security
zones. Hours before, during and some hours after
matches, the streets within at least a two-kilometre
radius in the adjacent neighbourhoods were blocked
by the national guard and the military police. Public
roads were closed for routine traffic. The security zones,
also named and well defined as security perimeters,
are integral and entrenched parts of a FIFA World Cup
event. The perimeter was structured in small entities
and multiple scales of obligations, each of which was
controlled by private-security (inner and outer) and publicsecurity forces (outer and external). Put simply, after the
airport-like checkpoints, FIFA and their private-security
contractors were mainly in charge, while public forces
were responsible outside the arenas.
Despite the highly visible and complex security
arrangements, security weaknesses were evident during
the event: stadium invasions occurred, ticket thefts were
reported, and policing conflicts were experienced, as
described at the start of this article. In what follows, I
will attempt to highlight the ways in which security forces
worked on the ground, and analyse how the concept of
integration fell down. In addition, I will investigate what kind
of breakdowns occurred in communication, risk analysis
and general security aspects during the World Cup.
The worst stadium invasion happened during the
Spain-Chile match on 18 June 2014. Poor ticket controls
appear to have led to the well-reported incident. Area
controls were also interpreted by individual police officers
in diverse ways, either zealously or loosely, producing
confusion and conflict. Interestingly, the invasion by
Chilean fans had parallels with the checkpoint problem
described earlier. Controls for pockets and tickets were
not very strict at some entry points, and fans were able
to easily pass with tickets from previous games. Indeed,
this indicates that the level of security control at different
access points was individually interpreted or, as it
appeared, that the levels of scrutiny were set differently
in different locations.
During the first match day, the metro station exit
that led directly to the military police control checkpoints
on the bridge witnessed spectator congestion. With one
hour remaining before kick-off, people were stuck. At
the same time, the Presidente Castelo Branco Avenue
just behind the DPM wasn’t closed and cars would sneak
under the bridge.
At every other corner, military policemen stood by
their police cars, occupied in looking at their smartphones.
To some extent they were obliged to do so, using an app
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
23
Security and safety
Security and safety
Maracanã
Maracanã
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Maracanã Stadium
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Public-security perimeter
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araca
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External security perimeter
Inner security perimeter
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$
Stadium ticketing center
Ticket clearing points
24
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
25
Security and safety
Security and safety
had saved money for months to afford tickets and travel
expenses. Desperately, they navigated the large number of
ground officials until they found their way to the DPM. But
help was still far away, as the civil police were not sure if
they could do anything . The bureaucratic, time-consuming
procedure involved to register the thefts pushed victims to
the edge of their nerves as kick-off got nearer.
An individual initiative of one of the police officers
was an attempt to solve the problem. He went to the
FIFA ticketing centre, to convince them to give out
replacements if a person reported their loss to the police.
Once this happened, the police started organising trips
in cars, transporting victims to the ticketing office. But
another communication and disorganisation matter
emerged. FIFA did not check the ticket registration
numbers and caused another problem: replacements ran
out and many people who did not have one in the first
place got hold of one, feigning loss to the police, while
many legitimate owners could not access the game.
Meanwhile, the DPM was crowded and improvisation
appeared to be taking over from trained police work:
shouting, beseeching and desperate victims, military
police and municipal guards bringing in possible
perpetrators, but no crowd barriers to hold people back,
no tables outside and many officers on shift trying to
Security staff outside the Macaranã Stadium before
the Spain-Chile match on 18 June 2014, when the
tournament’s worst stadium invasion occurred
Matthias Hangst/Getty
Highly visible security measures were the
order of the day during the World Cup
messaging service to substitute for the badly working,
or even failing, communication technology.
Metal detection machines manned by a private
security company at the entrance to the outer security
perimeter were a focus of the security operation. My own
tests confirmed that I could easily pass by showing my
mobile phone to the agents, and leaving keys in my pocket.
Communication, chaos and improvisation
On 7 June, only a few days prior to the start of the
World Cup, a test event took place. The aim of this
test event was to simulate an evacuation plan for the
Maracanã. In the briefing for firefighters a day earlier,
officials had complained heavily about communication
system problems. According to the officials, different
communication systems were used inside and outside the
Maracanã and this was the main element that needed to
be tested. Another issue that complicated the planning
was the absence of any FIFA Local Organising Committee
(LOC) officials at these meetings. The non-attendance of
the LOC was also identified as problematic by Roberto
Alzir, Undersecretary for Major Events, at the Brazilian
Forum of Public Security only two weeks after the World
Cup final. The communication structure between FIFA and
26
orchestrated neither between the LOC and the security
forces, nor between the national organisations themselves.
At this point, I want to return to the earlier observation
that chaos and improvisation marked the work in and
around the security perimeter during the very first days of
the World Cup. The communication management between
private security, the LOC and the state security organs
was a significant weakness. The mantra of integration
seems obsolete in the light of the many complications.
Therefore I would like to identify ‘integration’ differently:
simple ‘cooperation’ between diverse institutions. No
doubt, there was progress considering the institutional
complexity inherent to the Brazilian public-security
sector. But experience at the street level has brought to
the forefront that culturally embedded conflicts between
security institutions remain and are active. It may be too
much to expect a direct top-down effect on every single
police officer in the city when leaders proclaim a new
concept. But the overall and publicly declared success
of the World Cup security concept, rooted in surveillance
technology and integration, has now evolved to be the
new federal government strategy to address Brazil’s
countrywide public-security crisis. The governmental
argument to implement the CICCs as permanent models
to fight everyday crime problems draws upon a conception
of static security realities. It is at
least questionable whether immobile
models of crime prevention can help
to deal with human creativity in the
complicated Rio de Janeiro security
scenario. Cultural criminological
ways of understanding crime may
instead be worth a thought in order
to comprehend local complexities.
Highly visible security measures were the order of
the day in Rio during the World Cup, but the weaknesses
outlined above cast doubt on whether such security
paradigms are the most effective way of defending
major sports events against security risks. Henceforth,
the question might be: what can reduce the security costs
of previous events to save the host real money and effort,
but at the same time be more effective? The claims for
the performance of fully integrated security for the World
Cup conflict with the author’s experience, but does this
mean that such approaches are ineffective or impossible,
or simply that they are still in their infancy, and require
more time, experience and training in order to permeate
the ranks of policing? Whatever the case, the importance
of communication and the delegation of responsibilities
– from technical issues that create new risks to cultural
issues of inter-agency dialogue – are probably the biggest
issues to be worked on for the next time.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
the manifold security institutions provoked much irritation
along the way. Despite the fact that the LOC headquarters
were located in Rio’s west zone, communications went back
and forth between headquarters and Brasília, and only then
from the Brazilian capital to the regional commands.
Accordingly, tensions between representatives of
the LOC and public security officials accompanied the
World Cup tournament. Originating at the test event,
arguments about the correct positioning of the mobile
CICC, the DPM and the military police control platform
remained even until the first game day between Argentina
and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The DPM had multiple problems
passing the cordon of blocked roads around the stadium,
and traffic officials tried to prohibit the DPM’s positioning.
It seemed that the repeatedly praised integration strategy,
while perhaps effective at the higher levels of command,
was not so effective on the ground. In other words, it
seemed as though many officers on the ground from the
various institutions were not informed uniformly about
the orchestrated security operations.
The many ticket thefts can serve as an example, as
well. At the first match between Argentina and BosniaHerzegovina, many of the victims started to approach
the DPM. Among them were families and individuals that
handle the situation. Any idea to solve acute problems
required individual creativity. It should be said that the
performance improved at future matches, so lessons do
appear to have been learnt, but the poor communication
between the LOC and the local security institutions
contributed to this initial situation.
Assessing further weaknesses
The ticket theft problem is worth examining in a little
more detail, as it becomes clear that it was not a failure of
one, but of many actors in the field. The problem started
with the tickets themselves serving as a free metro pass.
When people entered the metro at a station far from the
stadium, the ticket had to be presented and pulled out of
the pocket. Thus many thieves targeted people on the way
to the stadium, outside more closely controlled areas.
The next point of weakness was right outside the
Maracanã station. Military police and FIFA volunteers
on high seats shouted through megaphones requesting
fans to present their tickets. Military police built many
checkpoints on the bridge immediately after the metro
exit, so not only did spectators need to expose their
tickets again, making themselves easier victims, but also
the loose controls gave access to the security perimeter
to those whom, in FIFA’s discourse, ‘should not be there’.
It seemed as if, to some extent, security strategies were
Dennis Pauschinger is an Erasmus Mundus/Erasmus+
Research Fellow with the Doctorate in Cultural and Global
Criminology. His research project aims to analyse global
security models associated with major sports events and
their possible effects on local security dynamics in host
cities. Follow the author on Twitter: @dpauschinger
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
27
Security and safety
Security and safety
Keeping all eyes
on the ball
Mike Bryant describes safety and security measures at Lord’s Cricket Ground
in London, the home of the Marylebone Cricket Club
Linda Steward/Getty Images
T
he safety and security concerns at sports
venues in the UK have changed markedly
over the past 25 years, with violence and
hooliganism in and around football grounds
being brought under control, and danger from IRA
terrorism subsiding as the Peace Process took hold.
At the same time, however, Islamist terrorist threats
have risen and all iconic events and venues now require
significant security operations, and safety issues have
become more important than ever.
As part of a programme to explore how these
issues are affecting sports other than football, the
ICSS Journal visited Lord’s Cricket Ground, the home
of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), and also the
‘home of cricket’ in England. Established in Marylebone
in 1787 by Thomas Lord as the MCC’s base, Lord’s
Cricket Ground moved to its current location in
St John’s Wood, north-west London, in 1814. It is the
venue that all other cricket grounds are measured
against and its security procedures have to be of the
highest effectiveness, while not impacting on spectators’
or players’ enjoyment and sense of well-being.
Jeff Cards is the Ground Superintendent at Lord’s.
It is his responsibility to ensure the safety of the 28,000
people who can fill the ground on match days, as well as
the players, officials and other MCC staff members.
The scale of that task varies according to the day’s
programme. Cricket is very much a summer sport,
and it is only during these months that the big games
will be played – test matches, one-day internationals
This 19th-century illustration shows a match taking place at Lord’s
Cricket Ground. The venue is one of the largest and oldest of its
kind in the UK, and as such it must set high standards of security
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
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29
Security and safety
Marylebone Cricket Club
Neil Tingle/ActionPlus/Corbis
Security and safety
A sniffer dog checks the Media Centre at
Lord’s for explosives before a game. Search
measures begin two days before major events
and county matches involving Middlesex Country Cricket
Club, for whom Lord’s is also the home ground. But the
venue is open throughout the year, catering to public tours
and corporate events, which may involve VIPs from the
world of politics, or celebrities who may be the subject
of unwanted attention. Each of these situations present
a different sort of threat and requires a specific security
(for example, the threat level for international terrorism in
the United Kingdom as of the beginning of 2015 remains
at severe, meaning an attack is “highly likely”), and any
intelligence received in regard to particular dangers that
might be present on a given day and associated with a
certain sporting or non-sporting event.
Cards oversees a core team of seven full-time security
officers, primarily working day shifts.
An external agency is contracted to
provide premises security overnight.
There is a protective team on
duty on the premises 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year. This team is
supplemented by large numbers
of other staff and contractors as
required: there might be up to 500
stewards on duty and keeping order
during a test match, for example.
While stewards tend, as a body, to be somewhat
transient, moving from the job into other employment
fairly quickly or only stewarding occasionally, some
stewards do the job on an almost professional basis.
They will work not only at Lord’s, but also at other
cricket grounds and may also act as stewards at other
big sporting events, such as at football stadia and so on.
Each kind of event at the venue presents
a different sort of threat and requires a
specific security response
response. Some companies that choose to hold an event
at the ground may be involved in a contentious area of
business or be in the media spotlight, thereby attracting
protestors or some other kind of mass gathering.
Given this range of situations and potential threats
and required responses, Cards assesses the level of
security required for each day well in advance, based
on the schedule, the prevailing general threat level
30
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Ground Superintendent Jeff Cards monitors footage in the
control room during an England v Sri Lanka test match,
during which demonstrations were held by Tamil protesters
Lord’s has its own “robust and resilient” steward training
programme, Cards says, one that is nationally recognised
as meeting the Security Industry Authority’s (SIA)
requirements (the SIA lays out a system for the statutory
regulation of the UK’s private security industry), as well as
being NVQ (National Vocational Qualification) approved.
For particular major matches, Lord’s might make
use of serving armed forces personnel, who, dressed
in uniform, offer a presence the majority of spectators
respect. They can act as stewards where necessary, but
generally have a less specific role, acting more as ushers
while offering a reassuring presence.
Collaborating to ensure safety
While the venue’s security are a priority, the MCC does
everything in its power to make certain these operations
are as low-key as possible, ensuring everyone’s day out
is an enjoyable one untainted by intimidating measures.
Cards works with the MCC Meeting and Events team
to assess the security required for any Lord’s hosted
events that may require particular attention. He works
closely with the Metropolitan Police too, not only to assess
the scale of any threat, but also in order to be informed
of any particular intelligence they have gained that might
involve a threat to security at Lord’s. In this, he works
closely with the Metropolitan Police’s Lord’s Security
Coordinator as part of a collaborative effort to identify
any potential points of vulnerability and specific threats
to venue security.
On the day of a cricket match, Cards will be working
with police vis-à-vis law enforcement issues, as well as the
senior stewards, the MCC fire safety team (incorporating
serving and former London Fire Brigade officers) and
medical emergency personnel, such as volunteers from
St John Ambulance. This comes as part of his other role
– as Lord’s match day Safety Officer. A big part of his job
is to ensure that everything that happens does so within
the requirements of the Safety Certificate issued annually
by Westminster City Council.
Cards insists, as Safety Officer and in all matters
of safety and security, “I am very risk-averse,” though it
is noteworthy that on occasion Lord’s has hosted major
cricketing events, including test matches, with no police
presence at all. That can only be done when the threat
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
31
Security and safety
Security and safety
trying to enter the ground shortly before play begins for
a major England test match, crowds can form outside the
ground as spectators queue to enter. The MCC asks fans
to turn up in good time, but not everyone takes heed. In
general, most tolerate the queues, accepting the need
for heightened security measures in today’s environment
when visiting high-profile public places.
It is not just explosive devices or weapons that the
stewards are looking for. The MCC has banned items
such as flags and banners from the ground. Fancy dress,
which is a common sight at many other cricket venues, is
also prohibited, although – unlike at other British cricket
grounds – people are allowed to bring a limited amount of
alcohol into the stadium. Some will try to smuggle in more
than would be acceptable, and this is another thing that
stewards will be watching out for.
Lord’s is an all-seater stadium with a capacity of 28,000. There are
still congestion challenges, particularly at the end of play, but an
upcoming redevelopment offers the chance to address such issues
Marylebone Cricket Club
Large ground operators may
be in competition, but they
are keen to share knowledge
when it comes to safety
assessment is benign, but it does suggest the level of
confidence the MCC has in its own security operation.
It also saves on expenses, the MCC otherwise having to
pay the bill for police officers inside Lord’s. Outside Lord’s
Cricket Ground, there may be minor crowd control issues
to deal with, but primarily any police presence there is
likely to be dealing with ticket touts.
Intelligence sharing
Beyond the MCC, the England and Wales Cricket Board
(the ECB, the national governing body of the sport for
England and Wales that was set up on 1 January 1997)
works closely with the police in the form of an intelligence
cell that assesses the ongoing threat to cricket grounds
across the country. Cards also collaborates with the sport’s
own Cricket Safety Officers Association (CSOA) in order
to monitor any issues that might concern the MCC and
impact on security at Lord’s. The CSOA was formed in
2004 at the home of Leicestershire County Cricket Club,
with safety officers from the sport seeking to share best
practice in order to deliver safe and secure venues.
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
According to the Association, over the past decade
it has worked closely with the ECB and the International
Cricket Council (ICC), as well as with a range of other
relevant agencies such as the Football Safety Officers
Association (FSOA), Football Licensing Authority (FLA),
the UK’s National Counter Terrorism Security Office
(NaCTSO) and the Association of Chief Police Officers
(ACPO) in an open exchange of information that has
helped to keep the game safe.
Back at the MCC, it also collaborates with other
cricket clubs and ground safety managers to learn
lessons from each other and coordinate best practices.
Cards spent some time at the Oval ground in south
London, for example, to broaden his experience of how
security challenges are handled at the city’s other big
cricket venue. All the large ground operators may be in
competition, but they are keen to share their knowledge
and experiences when it comes to safety and security. And
they each face slightly different challenges, and go about
overcoming them in slightly different ways – so there is
plenty that they can learn from each other, says Cards.
While Lord’s boasts its own control room, within
which the ground’s CCTV can be monitored (the ground
also benefits from pitch intruder sensors as well as offpitch alarms), it is at the three main gates to the stadium,
between the high walls that represent such a recognisable
feature of the old ground, that the security effort really
begins. The security presence at each of these entrances
is significant, stewards providing a body search for all
those entering the ground on a match day; indeed, that
search regime is put in place two days before a big game,
and all are subject to it – players, contractors and delivery
companies, as well as spectators arriving for the match.
In addition to people, all vehicles are searched.
Sniffer dogs are used alongside other measures, due
to the perceived threat of vehicle-borne terrorist attack
having heightened in recent times. The stewards have
wands to help them, but they mainly rely on pat-downs
and bag inspections. This process is actually quicker
than asking spectators to pass through X-ray machines
after emptying their pockets, Cards insists. Still, the
process does take time, and when 28,000 people are
Once inside the ground, most spectators aim to find
their seat quickly and settle down to the day’s play. At
‘the home of cricket’, the majority of visitors come to
watch and are serious fans of the game, Cards notes.
Indeed, a good portion of the crowd will be almost
reverential in their respect of Lord’s, its history, and
what the venue means to the game, he suggests.
Crowd congestion can be a problem at pinch points
around the ground, especially during the scheduled breaks
that are a prominent feature of the game (lunch being
taken at 13:00, for example). At the beginning of those
breaks, large numbers of spectators leave their seats
to find refreshments at the ground’s catering facilities.
Moreover, at the close of play, especially if it has
been an exciting day and spectators have remained in
their seats to the end, the vast majority of the crowd
will all be trying to leave the venue together. This is a
particular challenge. Cards and his team are continually
assessing new ways of ensuring that exit procedures are
as efficient and as safe as possible. Cordons have been
tried to ease crowding towards the exits, although this
measure created its own problems.
With regard to other issues that affect safety and
security within the ground, theft and pickpocketing are
minor problems, Cards remarks. The stewards are trained
to marshal and cope with pitch invasions, a problem on
which the ECB also takes a firm stand, warning that any
unauthorised individual going onto the playing area is
liable to be arrested and face prosecution, immediate
removal from the venue as well as a possible ban from
all county cricket grounds.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
33
Security and safety
Patrick Eagar/Getty Images
Anthony Devlin/PA Images
Security and safety
Stewards make checks on spectators arriving at
Lord’s. There is a history of good crowd behaviour,
meaning less obtrusive types of security can be used
There has been no significant problem associated
with hooliganism or en masse fan misbehaviour at Lord’s.
There was an occasion when a fake bomb threat was
called in, perhaps by a disgruntled fan of a losing team,
but this might not be considered exceptional over a long
period of time when nearly 30,000 people come together
in conditions of excitement and nervousness for big
sporting events.
But demonstrations have had to be dealt with in
the past. During the Apartheid regime in South Africa,
demonstrators protested against the arrival of a Transvaal
security inside the ground. Working with the police and
the Sri Lankan authorities in London, this threat was
averted, but the occasion highlighted the fact that no
sport is immune to political tensions, and there are
those who would seek to use a major sporting event
as a shop window for their views.
Lord’s is one of the oldest of the country’s cricket
grounds; and the biggest in the UK. It sets the tone when
it comes to hosting big matches and, while Cards is quick
to say that the MCC would not claim to unarguably be the
best, it is perhaps still a model for others.
The security challenges are
evolving all the time. The nature of
terrorist threats, political crises that
incite protest, and demonstrations
are changing, while spectators
demand ever more from a day out
at a sporting event. “We don’t want to
be a fortress,” Cards states, pointing
out that the vast majority of visitors
are impeccably well behaved, while
overly ostentatious security measures
have the potential to affect their
enjoyment of cricket events at the ground.
But the security effort is helped by the fact that
the crowd tends to be self-policing. Between May and
September 2014, there were 28 ejections out of 350,000
match-day visitors and 16 major cricket matches.
Its hard-earned reputation for good behaviour
and as a secure environment for world-class sport
The nature of terrorist threats, political
crises and demonstrations are evolving
all the time, while spectators demand
ever more from a day out
side at Lord’s, and Cards points in particular to May and
June 2014, when England welcomed the Sri Lankan cricket
team to Lord’s and there was a significantly heightened
threat posed by Tamil protestors. Of course, there is a
legal right to demonstrate, including outside the ground,
and that has to be managed by the police, but there was
also intelligence that an effort would be made to breach
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Crowds head towards the food village during the lunch break of a
match. One of the issues Cards would like to see resolved during
the renovations is the extent of crowd movement during breaks
was perhaps part of the thinking behind Lord’s being
chosen to host the London 2012 Olympics’ archery
competition. And this reputation has also stood the
MCC in good stead, as Lord’s looks set to host the final
of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup final (the competition
as a whole is being held across grounds in England and
Wales). The venue has also been selected to host the
2017 ICC Women’s World Cup final.
The evolving challenge
Cards’ job will perhaps be made even more challenging
by the proposed expansion of Lord’s. The ground’s
development will add up to 3,000 more seats (Lord’s
is an all-seater stadium) and will begin in earnest with
the rebuilding of the Warner Stand in September 2015.
October 2014 also saw the start of a £3.7 million upgrade
to the Grand Stand. However, the masterplan offers the
opportunity to improve facilities as well. Cards would,
for example, like to see self-contained facilities in each
stand (for refreshments and so on), to help lower the
number of people moving around the ground during
breaks. Cards explains that widening some of the narrow
roadways, which are a remaining feature of the old ground,
would be of great benefit for improving the circulation of
people around Lord’s, thereby boosting their “customer
experience”. The proposed masterplan redevelopment
should be completed in 2017.
While he and his team are experienced in handling the
challenges of security and safety on match days, no matter
how large the crowd, as the hospitality market begins to
recover from the comparative doldrums of recent years,
the challenges of meeting the needs of growing numbers
of corporate events, sponsors and even an expanding
press clamouring for more space will grow.
The recent increase in the threat presented by
Islamist terrorism has heightened concerns generally:
there were certainly concrete threats that had to be
contended with in the wake of the London bombings
of 2005 (known as the 7/7 attack) admits Cards, but
he says the assistance received from police intelligence
is excellent. British sport and major match events have
not yet been targeted by terrorists in the way that they
have elsewhere (the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing,
for example, or the attack on a bus containing Sri
Lankan cricketers in Pakistan in 2009).
That by no means lulls Cards and his team into a
false sense of security: “The moment you take your eye
off the ball, you can be caught out,” he warns. Hence, the
MCC will continue to offer a visible deterrent at Lord’s, as
well as an intensive behind-the-scenes security presence
to combat the very different threats posed by terrorism,
political protest and crime.
Mike Bryant is a freelance security journalist
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
35
Security and safety
Security and safety
Security networks and
organisational culture
at sporting mega-events
Dr Chad Whelan discusses the importance of organisational cultures
in the security networks of major sporting events, exploring how cultural
differences can be managed, and the impact of leaders
S
porting mega-events, such as the Olympic
Games or World Cup football finals, now
involve the largest and longest security
operations carried out by their host nations
outside of wartime. This point is emphasised by
Robert Raine, former Director of London 2012 Olympic
and Paralympic Security at the UK Home Office, in an
interview for this edition of the ICSS Journal (page 101).
The London 2012 Summer Olympic Games involved
close to 40,000 personnel, including approximately
13,000 police, more than 17,000 from defence and
10,000 private security agents. The Brazil 2014 FIFA
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
World Cup is reported to have required up to 170,000
personnel, the majority being from the police and
military sectors, as well as approximately 20,000
private security agents.
But these numbers do not tell the whole story.
Within each of these sectors there are multiple police
agencies, many defence units, and of course private
security personnel from various companies (even if
they are working under the auspices of a select
contract provider). That is, there are many agencies
from a range of sectors or professional disciplines
and many specialist divisions within those agencies.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
37
Security and safety
Security and safety
It is one thing to take stock of the size and diversity
of the security operation for sporting mega-events;
however, it is quite another thing to coordinate and
manage such a task. Coordinating security at sporting
mega-events is becoming increasingly uniform. This
is perhaps not surprising given the level of knowledge
transfer that occurs between host nations and cities.
Security plans and procedures tend to emphasise the
two main ‘Cs’ – command and control – as well as other
important ‘Cs’, such as communication, cooperation,
coordination and collaboration. The London 2012
Security Strategy, for example, had as one of its stated
objectives: “command, control, plan and resource
(C2PR) the safety and security operation”.
There were numerous centres or security networks
established specifically to coordinate the London
Personnel from the armed forces and police change over at the Olympic
Park during the London 2012 Olympics. The multi-agency nature of the
security operation highlighted notable differences in organisational cultures
security operation. Security networks are understood as
organisational arrangements where organisations must
work together to achieve their own goal, as well as a
broader collective goal, and there is much benefit to
taking a network perspective in advancing our knowledge
of the challenges involved in coordinating security at
sporting mega-events.
A network perspective involves addressing at least
two sets of basic properties: structural and relational.
Structural properties include the design, size and level
of goal consensus between network members. Relational
properties include those formal and informal relationships
between members. One of the most significant factors
shaping relationships between agencies is organisational
culture; that is, the underlying beliefs, values and
attitudes that shape how an organisation, or group within
an organisation, thinks and acts in relation to almost
all aspects of its functioning. The security operation
for sporting mega-events will involve very different
organisational cultures, as noted above, and cultural
differences can pose unique challenges for all of the
‘Cs’ listed above, as well as introducing new ‘Cs’, such
as competition and conflict. Here, our aim is to review
the current knowledge of organisational culture within
the field of sporting mega-events and the challenge of
managing culture within and between organisations.
Organisational and occupational culture
Organisational culture is a heavily contested concept.
The first point of contention exists between those who
refer to culture as a variable and those who use the
term more as a metaphor or tool for understanding
organisational life. The former tends to take the view
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
iStock Image
Coordinating security at
sporting mega-events is
becoming more uniform
that culture is something an organisation has, whereas the
latter implies that culture is something an organisation is,
making it difficult to determine what is and is not ‘culture’.
Viewing culture as a variable assumes a functionalist
position: that is, culture is something that exists within
organisations, can be identified and analysed, and can
be linked to various outcomes of an organisation, such as
organisational performance. Many analysts in this field
argue that culture can be a major reason for the success
and failure of organisations.
The second point of contention addresses the level
at which organisational culture is shared. There are two
main positions on this subject. The first is known as
the ‘integration’ perspective, in which culture refers to
the beliefs, values and attitudes shared across members
of an organisation. It is in this context that analysts call for
a ‘strong’ or high-performing culture – one that is shared
by members of the organisation and aligned directly to
the goals of that organisation’s senior executives – to
improve organisational performance. The second position
is the ‘differentiation’ perspective, whereby many argue
that there is usually no integrated or shared organisational
culture, with consensus on beliefs, values and attitudes
occurring only within sub-cultural boundaries, such as
units or divisions within organisations. Hence, the first
view holds that all organisations have a culture, while
the second suggests that organisations are comprised
of sub-cultures.
A third point of contention involves the challenge
of changing organisational culture. While this subject is
filled with popular management resources such as stepby-step guidebooks, the more reflective literature is far
from optimistic about the likelihood of such processes
leading to meaningful and sustained cultural change.
Evidence clearly suggests that interventions from top
management alone are unlikely to create lasting cultural
change. Changing organisational culture by design is
very difficult, especially when one acknowledges the
existence of organisational sub-cultures, and requires
a mix of top-down and bottom-up strategies over time.
Edgar Schein is perhaps the leading international
expert on organisational culture. In his book Organisational
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Police units evolve their own
occupational cultures
will depend on many factors, including the length of its
history, the stability of its membership and the types of
experiences its members have shared. Culture, then, can
be defined as the shared beliefs, values and attitudes – or
what Schein calls ‘basic underlying assumptions’ – which
form over the course of a group’s history and which
influence how it thinks and acts in relation to all aspects
of its functioning. This definition is particularly suited to
the challenges associated with managing organisational
culture in the context of sporting mega-events.
Differentiating cultures in sporting mega-events
As mentioned in the introduction, there are many different
organisational and occupational cultures involved in the
security operation of sporting mega-events. Cultural
differences exist between, for example, the public-private,
police-intelligence and civil-military sectors. Within these
sectors we can expect police, security, intelligence and
defence agencies to have very different organisational
cultures. We should also keep in mind the potential for
agencies to have quite different organisational cultures
within the same professional discipline; for example, police
organisations can have quite different cultures from each
other even though they perform the same function.
While organisational culture has been studied in the
field of policing for many decades, much less research
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has been conducted on organisational cultures within
intelligence and defence, and very little is known about the
organisational cultures of private security organisations.
Moreover, there is very little research on the interaction
between organisations across these sectors. However,
using London 2012 and Brazil 2014 as working examples,
we can clearly see how cultural differences form and
function in sporting mega-events.
The London 2012 security operation involved more
than 50 individual police organisations. While many
officers were working broadly under the auspices of
the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), due to the
geographical distribution of the Games, 11 police
organisations had lead roles at Olympic venues that
retained their local command structures. Assistant
Commissioner of the MPS, Chris Allison, who was the
National Olympic Security Coordinator (NOSC), oversaw
the overall security operation across the country with the
support of the National Olympic Coordination Centre
(NOCC), a multi-agency fusion centre hosted by the MPS
and comprising representatives from various partner
agencies, as well as the 11 police organisations from each
of the Olympic venues. The coordination centre can be
understood as an immensely complex security network.
While police organisations share much in common,
particularly within one country, it is quite
likely that subtle differences in beliefs,
values and attitudes exist between the
many police organisations. For example,
seconded police from outside of England
are especially likely to have different
cultural outlooks, as are those from outside
metropolitan cities. In addition to cultural
differences between police organisations, there is no
doubt that occupational cultures also exist within these
organisations. Police units evolve their own occupational
cultures if they have a sufficiently shared history and
stable membership. It is therefore understandable that
specialist divisions, which enjoy relative stability, will
evolve their own cultures. Many police researchers have
commented on ‘paramilitary police units’ – including
Special Weapons and Tactics (United States), Specialist
Firearms Command (United Kingdom) and Special
Operations Group (Australia) – as being distinctly different
from other units or divisions of their respective police
organisations. For London 2012, specialists units included:
dog units, firearms, marine, motorcycle escorts, mounted
section, protection officers, and search and rescue. It is
quite likely that many of these units will have evolved
their own occupational sub-cultures given their unique
properties compared with other units.
The security operation during the Brazil 2014 FIFA
World Cup was similarly complex, but also quite different.
In contrast to London, law enforcement in Brazil is more
state-led and federal, meaning that although there were
many more security personnel involved, they came
from far fewer organisations. Brazil 2014 was even more
geographically dispersed than London 2012, involving
12 host cities. In each host city, a Regional Integrated
Former Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, National Olympic Security
Coordinator for London 2012, in the National Olympic Coordination Centre,
which was a fusion centre for the various police services and partner agencies
© Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime 2014
Culture and Leadership (now in its fourth edition),
Schein presents culture as a variable that influences
many aspects of organisational behaviour. He argues
that some organisations will experience an integrated
culture, some will be characterised by organisational
sub-cultures, and many will have both.
As a general rule, we can expect that the larger the
organisation and more functionally differentiated and/
or geographically dispersed that organisation is, the
more likely that organisation is to be characterised by
various sub-cultures rather than a single organisational
culture. We can often understand these sub-cultures as
‘occupational sub-cultures’. Any organisation is likely
to be comprised of people from different occupations.
We can also understand organisational sub-cultures
to develop within specialist units that tend to interact
much more with each other than with other members
of the organisation. In relation to cultural change, Schein
presents this as fundamentally a task of leadership,
though he acknowledges that this is a complex process
as culture is highly resistant to change.
Schein defines organisational culture using the term
‘group’, meaning any social unit that has some kind of
shared history, as the basis to analyse organisational
culture. The strength of any particular group’s culture
Security and safety
Command and Control Centre was established, which
connected to the National Integrated Command and
Control Centre (NICCC) located at the headquarters
of the Federal Traffic Police in Brasilia. Many agencies
were represented in the National and Regional Centres,
including Civil, Military and Federal Police Forces, the
Federal Traffic Police, Brazilian Intelligence Agency and
Ministry of Defence. We can expect there to be significant
differences in the cultures of these agencies as well as
various divisions within these agencies.
The organisational cultures of police involved in
London 2012 and Brazil 2014 were noticeably different
for many reasons. As with any organisation, we can
expect the cultures of police to be broadly reflective
of the societal cultures within which that organisation
exists. Policing in the UK largely derives from the ethos
of ‘community-oriented policing’ – itself a subject of
considerable debate – in which policing is viewed as a
service to the community. Policing in Brazil arguably has
much closer ties with the military, particularly state police,
while the Federal Police Force is largely modelled on the
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Police officers in the
UK rarely carry firearms, while police in Brazil are often
heavily armed. This point of difference is not simply a
result of the very different crime problems evident in the
two countries; it is also deeply embedded in the history
of the countries’ policing. All of these factors – and
more – will shape the cultural outlooks of police agencies
in ways that influence how they perform their function.
They will also clearly result in very different experiences
for spectators of sporting mega-events.
Managing cultural differences is a critically important
task. Returning to the work of Schein, organisational
culture and leadership can be seen as two sides of the
same coin. While acknowledging that many variables
shape culture, Schein argues that culture defines
leadership – both in terms of who will be appointed as
leaders and who will receive attention from followers
– and that leaders can, under certain conditions, create
and change culture. Schein distinguishes leadership
from management by suggesting that leaders are in a
position to create and change culture, whereas managers
act within a culture.
Leadership and organisational culture
The relationship between leadership and organisational
culture is often discussed in policing. For example,
Bill Bratton, who was considered for the position of
Commissioner of the MPS in 2011 and is the current
– and former – Commissioner of the New York Police
Department, was quoted in The Guardian at that time as
saying: “Bureaucrats change processes, leaders change
culture. I think of myself as a transformational leader who
changes cultures.” The central idea of ‘transformational
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Martin Meissner/AP/PA Images
Headquarters of the Brazilian Federal Highway Police
in Brasilia, which houses the control centre of the
Extraordinary Secretariat for Major Events (SESGE)
© DPA picture alliance/Alamy
Special forces police watch fans outside
the Mineirão stadium prior to the 2014
World Cup semi-final. The security forces
deployed in Brazil were largely state-led
leadership’ is about creating the desired beliefs, values
and attitudes among members of an organisation rather
than only focusing on policies and procedures. However,
often we see leaders of organisations that have a deeply
established culture (such as police organisations) become
defined by that culture, meaning as they struggle to
change culture they are met with considerable resistance
– a struggle that ends up defining their leadership.
There are at least two levels of leadership in complex
multi-agency security environments such as sporting
mega-events: the first is the more traditional level
of leadership within organisations, while the second is
leadership in the context of networks. Organisational leaders
need to espouse beliefs, values and attitudes that support
important ‘Cs’ such as cooperation, coordination and
collaboration. Network leaders, including central actors
such as the NOSC during London 2012, have a similar but
slightly different role. Leaders in networks need to promote
the importance of these three ‘Cs’, but also actively work
to moderate the effects of cultural differences between
agencies comprising the security network.
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Organisational and occupational cultural differences
can result in conflict as agencies approach problems from
their own cultural outlook. Cultural differences have also
caused problems with inter-agency communication for
reasons such as the lack of a ‘common language’ and
reluctance to share information. Language differences
are more notable between professional disciplines. For
example, in very early discussions involving planning
for the security operation for the Melbourne 2006
Commonwealth Games, a senior police officer frequently
used the term ‘engage’ in relation to the importance of
‘engaging the community’ in broad counter-terrorism
objectives. At the time, some defence personnel from
the Special Forces seemed quite surprised by the use of
the term; for them, the term ‘engage’ had a very different
meaning (firing at the enemy). This is just one simple
example of how language differences must always be
considered when communicating between organisations.
At another level, information-sharing is a known concern
in many countries with regard to the operational
relationship between police and intelligence agencies.
However, managing cultural differences is not only
a function of leadership. It is important that individuals
actively work to understand the cultures of partner
agencies in order to be able to work more effectively
together. Police, for example, need to understand
their different ways of thinking and acting compared
with private security. Defence needs to understand
the different cultures of police. This applies across all
based table-top and live simulated exercises that have
long been part of sporting mega-event security planning
are normally thought of in relation to clarifying roles
and responsibilities, but they also reveal important
insights into cultural differences and help negotiate those
differences. Normally, however, this is an unplanned sideeffect of the objective to clarify operational processes. It
would be worth exploring whether, and how, understanding
and managing cultural differences could
form a much more explicit part of such
exercises. This would require direct efforts
at establishing a detailed understanding
of the organisational and occupational
cultures of security agencies. It is also
important to attempt to establish an
overriding ‘network culture’ in which
members develop a shared set of beliefs, values and
attitudes regardless of their different cultural backgrounds,
particularly in multi-agency fusion centres. Such a
culture can develop in much the same way that it does
in organisations; that is, as members interact and share
experiences over time.
Managing cultural differences is a
critically important task for leaders
professional disciplines and occupational sub-cultures,
from community-oriented policing units on the one hand,
to special tactics units on the other hand. Understanding
cultural differences is still not enough. Individuals and
groups need to adapt their own ways of thinking and
acting to accommodate others. This is undoubtedly the
most challenging aspect of working together in complex
security networks.
There are a number of strategies employed in
sporting mega-events that implicitly and explicitly deal
with cultural differences. For example, the scenario-
Dr Chad Whelan is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at
Deakin University. He has worked in security and risk
management and lectures in the fields of serious crime,
terrorism, intelligence and security
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Sport and alcohol:
a bad mix?
Richard Giulianotti explores the public order and public health
issues associated with alcohol restrictions and advertising in sport
E.D. Torial/Alamy
S
port has a long and complex relationship with
alcohol, particularly in relation to managing
security and safety. Alcohol consumption
has often been presented as a key reason for
incidents of spectator violence and disorder. Hence, in
some nations, such as Brazil, Russia and the United
Kingdom, alcohol sales and consumption inside some
or all sport stadia have been restricted or banned.
In the past year or so, however, the issue of
alcohol in sport has received some fresh attention.
Preparing for the 2014 World Cup finals, the Brazilian
Government lifted laws that had banned alcohol from
football stadia. More recently, politicians, media
commentators and football officials in the UK have
discussed the possibility of relaxing alcohol restrictions,
often by pointing to how other countries and
sports take more liberal approaches.
At the heart of the sport-alcohol debate are
security questions, relating to public order and also
to health. Security issues, with drunk fans engaging
in brawls or offensive chanting, tend to dominate
media attention, but in the longer run, health rather
than public order issues will be more significant in
shaping sport’s relationships with alcohol.
We should begin by recognising that sport has
extensive historical, financial and cultural ties with
alcohol. Male sport participants and spectators have
always combined sport activities with recreational
drinking. Pre-event drinks in particular are a major
institution in many sports, as evidenced by the
A football fan carries cups filled with beer at a public
screening of a FIFA World Cup match in 2006.
Alcohol is widely sold and consumed at such events
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there are specific incidents in sport that might be pointed
at, involving a mix of violence, disorder and alcohol. For
example, in Vancouver in 2011, the local team lost the
final fixture of ice hockey’s Stanley Cup, leading to rioting
involving hundreds of people. Afterwards, Dr Patricia
Daly, the city’s Chief Medical Health Officer, called for
legal restrictions on the carrying of alcohol during major
events. A year earlier, the city’s Winter Olympics had
been reported as “the drunkest Olympics ever” by Time
magazine, though the complaints were more about ‘frat
house’ behaviour than about outbreaks of any violence.
The Heysel stadium disaster in 1985, resulting in the deaths of 39 people,
was blamed on hooliganism. The link between alcohol and aggressive
behaviour is often cited as a reason to restrict alcohol sales in stadia
Case study: Scottish football
Scottish football provides one lengthy case study in the
sport, violence and alcohol debate. Substantial levels of
alcohol consumption were widely viewed as a key factor
behind high levels of spectator disorder and violence in
the 1960s and 1970s, particularly
at fixtures involving the ‘Old Firm’
Glasgow clubs of Celtic and Rangers,
and at annual England-Scotland
matches, notably when played in
London. Old match reports referred
to beer bottles being thrown by
supporters towards the field of play
(and often landing on supporters
nearer the touchline), while some
photographs showed the aftermath of fixtures, with
terraces and industrial skips littered with discarded
cans and bottles.
The issue appeared to come to a head at the 1980
Scottish Cup Final, when hundreds of Celtic and Rangers
fans invaded the pitch and fought each other before being
cleared by mounted police officers wielding batons. The
incident was captured live on national television. Soon
afterwards, Scotland became one of the first established
football nations to impose major alcohol restrictions,
through the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act, which barred
alcohol sales and consumption inside stadiums.
Paradoxically, as restrictions on alcohol in football
in Scotland and in other parts of the UK took hold at this
time, wider public policy from the 1970s onwards had
already been set on a more liberal path, for example by
extending pub licensing hours. These latter measures were
intended in part to cultivate drinking patterns often found
in southern Europe, with consumption spread more evenly
and responsibly throughout the day, rather than during
more dangerous ‘binge’ sessions over short periods of
time. Arguably, the main impact of these measures has
been less about improving health and public order, and
more about increasing the expectation that alcohol should
be routinely available throughout the day. Several decades
later, the spotlight inevitably falls on why football should
be a ‘special case’ in so distrusting its clientele as to
continue to restrict access in this way.
There are a host of arguments that are put forward
to support a relaxation on alcohol restrictions inside
sport stadia. First, there are arguments surrounding good
behaviour at sport events, and changes in the culture
and practices of sport spectators themselves. In England
and Wales, for example, only 2,273 arrests were made in
football contexts during the 2013-14 season; more than
38 million spectators attended fixtures, so the arrests
figure represents 0.01 per cent of all attending fans.
Football fans are also presented as having become more
mature in their behaviour. This argument would accept
that, in the past, there were ‘good reasons’ for alcohol
to be strongly regulated within stadia – for example, in
regard to levels of violence in and around English football
in the 1980s. However, it is contended at club and national
level that supporters are deemed to be more responsible
in their behaviour, and far less likely to allow a drink in the
stadium to cloud their judgement.
Some commentators have also pointed to shifts in
the dominant cultures of fan groups at major international
tournaments, where colourful, raucous and highly sociable
AFP/Getty Images
In much of Europe, the size of selfidentifying football ‘hooligan’ groups
is far smaller than it was in the 1980s
‘tailgate parties’ in North America, and the ‘open bars’
that are available in the corporate boxes of many stadia.
For many athletes through the years, one long-standing
aspiration has been to own a local pub or tavern in order
to secure a steady retirement income. And, of course,
the alcohol industry has long been a major player in
sponsoring sport teams, federations and tournaments:
think the Heineken Cup in European rugby, Johnnie Walker
in Formula One, the naming of American sport stadia
(such as Busch Stadium or Miller Park), or Budweiser’s
presence at FIFA’s major events. So restrictions on alcohol
are not made lightly, as they have significant financial and
social impacts on sport.
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The main reason put forward for restrictions on
the sale and consumption of alcohol in sport stadia
centres on security. Alcohol consumption lowers
inhibitions, leading to the potential for more aggressive
behaviour and violence. There are two main sides to these
arguments. First, there are the broad observations on
the links between alcohol, aggression and violence in the
wider society. In England and Wales, for example, recent
statistics estimate that almost 50 per cent of violent crime
is ‘alcohol-related’, where the perpetrator is understood to
have been ‘under the influence’ of alcohol. It follows that if
sport spectators consume more alcohol inside a stadium,
they are more likely to engage in violent incidents. Second,
behaviour is common. In short, these ‘carnival’ fans are
heavily intoxicated and non-violent. In football, from the
late 1980s onwards, supporter groups following Ireland,
Denmark, Scotland, Germany and the Netherlands, to
name just a few, have been particularly celebrated for
such behaviour. Similar fan cultures are evidenced
periodically at club level, particularly at major finals.
In the past, it was difficult for some observers to
square alcohol consumption with sociable behaviour.
For example, when Scotland played Sweden in Genoa
at a 1990 World Cup group match, one UK television
commentator praised the friendly, boisterous and nonviolent behaviour of around 18,000 Scottish fans, which
he attributed to their low level of alcohol consumption;
indeed, he suggested, not one of them would have failed
a police breathalyser test. I was at that fixture and can
attest that, while the comments about sociable behaviour
were accurate, those about alcohol were not: indeed,
most fans had enjoyed several drinks before the match,
and a large proportion appeared to be heavily intoxicated.
Today, these misguided assumptions are generally much
less likely to be made.
Second, the security context is rather different to
that of the past, when alcohol restrictions were often
put in place. For example, at football fixtures in much
of northern Europe, the size of self-identifying football
‘hooligan’ groups is far smaller than it was in the 1980s.
The control and monitoring of spectators is also much
more easily achieved through the establishment of allseated stands, effective segregation, and CCTV and other
surveillance systems inside grounds. In addition, since the
Hillsborough disaster in 1989, some ground conditions
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Nigel Roddis/Reuters
Darren Staples/Reuters
Before and after: a riot erupted in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester, when a big screen showing
the 2008 UEFA Cup final failed. Such public screenings, at which alcohol is widely available,
present further questions regarding the consumption of alcohol by crowds of sport spectators
have become more ‘humane’ – for example, in terms of
better safety provisions and the removal of perimeter
fencing. Arguably, a more relaxed policy on alcohol inside
stadia would reflect the different security conditions to
those of thirty years ago.
Inconsistencies in regulation
Third, the pro-drink lobby also points to how stadium
alcohol restrictions have little or no impact on more
substantial consumption outside the venue. Before
any sport event, spectators usually have several hours
to consume alcohol before entering the stadium. The
relevance of pre-match drinking, and the difficulty of
restricting this practice, are perhaps reflected in some
nations when ‘high-risk’ events, such as major football
derbies, are scheduled to have early kick-offs, notably
around lunchtime. Relevant fixtures in the UK include
Celtic-Rangers matches in Scotland, and the NewcastleSunderland derby in north-east England.
An important point to bear in mind is that much
major sport is now watched live in large public venues
away from stadia. At World Cup finals, the ‘Fan Miles’ and
‘Fan Zones’ enable tens of thousands of viewers to watch
fixtures on giant television screens. Alcohol is widely sold
and consumed within these designated areas, which also
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allow for relatively free association and mingling of rival
supporters, with policing and security both low-key and
undertaken at a distance. Major outbreaks of disorder at
such gatherings have taken place – for example, at the
2008 UEFA Cup final in Manchester, Rangers fans rioted
after a transmission failure by a giant television screen
in the city centre – however, these are rare occurrences
and there are no signs that such public events will be
terminated in future. Thus, overall, stadium restrictions
have no real impact on the much more substantial
availability of alcohol throughout match days.
Fourth, variations and inconsistencies on alcohol
regulations within specific countries have been widely
criticised. For example, in the UK, there are substantial
restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcohol at
football matches, while other sports such as cricket and
rugby allow spectators to buy and consume alcohol within
view of the pitch. Indeed, cricket matches typically go on
for more than seven hours each day, allowing for all-day
drinking among spectators; accordingly, at some major
fixtures, stadium security officials make definite plans for
the potential outbreak of disorderly behaviour in some
ground sections towards the end of the day.
Elsewhere, in the United States, the National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) bars the sale
and consumption of alcohol at its championship events,
largely on the grounds of health promotion. At the same
time, a growing number of universities and colleges have
started to sell alcohol and to pursue sponsorships from
the alcohol industry for events that they control. Recent
press coverage of NCAA events has highlighted this
inconsistency, the irritation of fans towards the ban,
and how some spectators manage to
sneak alcohol into arenas.
Additionally, while some sports
may restrict alcohol sales inside
stadia, other significant public
events – such as concerts and
theatre shows – have no such
regulations. Thus, by law, the same
individual may be free to enjoy a drink at a rock show or a
cricket fixture, but would be breaking the law and liable to
arrest and imprisonment if they sought to act in the same
way at a football match.
A fifth criticism of alcohol restrictions centres on
the inconsistent ways in which different spectators inside
stadia are treated. In Scotland, for example, spectators
with access to corporate boxes and hospitality suites are
able to have a drink, whereas those who have regular
seats in the ground are banned from consuming alcohol.
For some commentators, this appears as a class issue,
with football’s more working-class fans being denied the
chance to have a drink, while more middle-class fans, in
hospitality suites or at other sports such as rugby, are
free to buy and consume alcohol if they wish.
Sixth, major international differences exist on the
availability of alcohol within football stadia. Even in the
Major international differences exist on
the availability of alcohol within stadia
UK, there are significant legal variations. In England,
alcohol is sold at the main refreshment kiosks in many
stadia but cannot be consumed by supporters in view of
the pitch. Conversely, in Scotland, where a separate legal
system is in place, tighter regulations mean that alcohol
is not sold so openly, but is available only in hospitality
and corporate suites. In mainland Europe, the situation
is often much more liberal – most obviously in Germany,
where alcohol is sold in and around the stadium and may
be freely consumed.
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on the advertising of particular food and beverages,
such as fast food and fizzy drinks, to sport audiences.
The question here is whether, in the context of growing
international levels of obesity and non-communicable
diseases such as diabetes, it will be defensible for sport
federations and event organisers to extol messages
about public health and happiness while accepting
large advertising income from corporations that are
heavily criticised by health professionals.
A Budweiser sign at Nottingham’s City Ground stadium during an FA Cup match
in 2014. Alcohol advertising in sport has become the subject of intense debate
Nigel French/EMPICS Sport/PA Images
Public health and sport sponsorships
As sport spectators continue to become more mobile,
and travel more routinely to events in different nations,
they encounter more regularly these different ways in
which alcohol is regulated. In particular, those travelling
into more liberal social environments soon recognise
that alcohol sales have little adverse effect on spectator
behaviour, and instead are part of a normal, enjoyable
match-day experience both inside and outside sport
venues. On returning, these fans may be likely to argue
in favour of their home nation adopting similar policies.
Commercial considerations
Seventh, there is the argument that alcohol restrictions
may have an adverse impact on the atmosphere of an
event. In other words, allowing alcohol consumption
inside stadia may enable a more informal and sociable
atmosphere to take hold, as is reflected in the more
participatory and expressive types of fan behaviour.
This type of atmosphere can make for a more enjoyable
and exciting spectacle for fellow spectators. It can also
help to make the event more attractive to television
viewers at home.
Eighth, some major sport federations require the
hosts of sport mega-events to sell alcohol inside stadia,
in part because of commercial links between these
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bodies and specific corporate partners. These regulations
can lead to possible areas of conflict that need to be
resolved before the event takes place. For example, the
sale of alcohol in Brazilian stadia had been prohibited
since 2003. Following FIFA pressure for a change in
Brazilian law on this matter in the run-up to the 2014
World Cup finals, the Brazilian Government produced new
legislation enabling stadia to sell beer. However, during the
tournament, there were signs that FIFA might be looking
to rethink its policy on this issue. In a television interview
with Brazilian station SporTV, FIFA General Secretary
Jerome Valcke indicated that he was “amazed” at the
high levels of drunkenness at some games, and that,
if appropriate, the international governing body would
restrict alcohol sales in stadia.
Ninth, a final point here concerns the individual
liberty and freedom of the sport ‘consumer’. Here,
it is argued, the reach of the legal system has been
overextended to restrict the freedom of individuals to
enjoy a drink, as they would be able to do in almost any
other social or market context as part of their leisure
and recreation. In turn, such restrictions on liberty may
contribute towards the individual ‘consumer’ exercising
their market freedom to quit one sport and get involved
in something else. Thus, if security is the main reason
for alcohol being banned inside sport stadia, then it
might be argued that this policy has become outdated,
inconsistent, and misdirected. On the other hand, any
change to the sport-alcohol relationship should not pursue
a one-size-fits-all model, but instead needs to consider
carefully the different legal and cultural contexts in which
any new policy is pursued. It would be inappropriate to
The perceived threat posed by alcohol to health has been
highlighted by a sizeable health lobby featuring leading
medics, health professionals, campaign groups and
charities, who seek to have the drinks industry widely
banned from advertising in sport. Such a ban is already
in place in France, Norway and Russia. A comparable
campaign has been pursued recently in Formula 1 with
regard to road safety and security. Campaign groups have
called for alcohol advertising to be banned from the sport
due to the dangers of drink-driving, and were reportedly
successful in blocking the candidature of Jean Todt,
president of motor sport’s international governing body,
to become a United Nations representative for road safety.
In highlighting how this ban may be achieved, these
lobby groups point to the transformation in sport’s
relationship with the tobacco industry. In the past,
sports such as cricket, Formula 1 racing, and snooker
were heavily sponsored by tobacco corporations; calls
to ban such advertising were greeted with dire warnings
about crucial financial contributions, and the inevitable
demise of these sports. When these bans eventually did
come into place, the sports’ marketing divisions adjusted
and new sponsors were subsequently located.
The sponsoring of future sport mega-events may
provide important test areas for these bans, as host
nations consider the balance between health, security,
and the staging costs. For example, Russia, host of the
2018 FIFA World Cup, has among the world’s highest
rates of alcohol consumption. In 2013, a federal law was
passed that prohibited the sale of alcohol inside sport
arenas, while a ban on alcohol
advertising had been enforced not
long before. As a result, the Sochi
2014 Winter Olympics were a mainly
‘dry’ event. However, in order to
pursue sponsorships in the run-up
to the 2018 World Cup finals, Russia
will remove restrictions on alcohol
advertising in and around sport; these measures are
scheduled to come back into place after the tournament.
Overall, these matters of public health rather than
public order are likely to become more important in
future ‘security’ debates on alcohol restrictions in and
around sport.
Alcohol restrictions may have an adverse
impact on the atmosphere of an event
demand, in countries where the sale and consumption of
alcohol is heavily regulated, that all sports events should
be actively deregulated. That said, there seems to be little
security basis for alcohol being much more stringently
regulated at specific sport events than at other sport
events or in the wider society.
It is on the health security and advertising issue
that, in the longer term, there is likely to be a much more
significant debate on the relationships between alcohol
and sport. That will be part of a wider health debate
Richard Giulianotti is Professor of Sociology at
Loughborough University, and Professor II at
Telemark University College, Norway
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
51
Security and safety
Security and safety
Violence and racism on
the pitch: a reflection of failure
A succession of violent and racist football-related incidents in Europe and
North Africa over the past 12 months reflects the failure of governments to
address the socio-economic and political aspirations of large numbers of
marginalised youth in the region, argues James M Dorsey
T
he list of violent or racist football-related
incidents over the past year ranges from
stampedes, fan violence, attempts at racial
segregation, chanting of jihadist slogans and
radicalisation of European youth, to the killing of a
player and a stampede in February at a Cairo stadium
that left 22 fans dead, including members of Ultras
White Knights (UWK), the militant support group of
Al Zamalek SC. That same month, the African Cup of
Nations semi-finals in Equatorial Guinea were marred
by repeated fan violence; in August 2014 a player was
killed by a missile thrown at the end of an Algerian
league game; supporters in Casablanca chanted jihadist
52
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
slogans en route to a match; English fans in Paris
prevented a black man from travelling on the city’s
metro, while some chanted racist slogans; and football
players and enthusiasts have even been mentioned in
news stories concerning young people in Europe that
have joined Islamic State.
The geographic and political setting in each of these
cases differs, as does the degree of the state’s coercive
force. Yet, stripped to basics, the issues are the same.
Egyptian fans, four years after having played a key
role in a popular revolt, have seen their achievements
pushed back and the rise of a regime that is even more
repressive than that of President Hosni Mubarak, whom
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
53
Security and safety
Security and safety
A disparity in the perceptions of King Mohammad VI
has led to Islamic State appealing as a symbol for some
Moroccan youth. The Moroccan monarch, unlike most of
the region’s rulers, neutralised anti-government protests in
2011 by endorsing a new constitution that brought limited
change, but kept the country’s basic political structure in
place. Moroccans, however, have seen little change in their
economic, social and political prospects, while journalists
and activists continue to face repression.
Algerian security forces escort a supporter from the field at half time
during a club match in Algiers. An increase in football-related violence
is linked to political frustration among the country’s younger generations
Restricting free speech
Anis Belghoul/AP/PA Images
Mouad Belghouat, a prominent dissident rapper better
known as El Haqed, was arrested in May 2014 on charges
of having scalped game tickets, public drunkenness and
assaulting a police officer as he was entering a stadium
to watch a football match. The arrest occurred a day
after Belghouat mocked the King on his Facebook status
because he would be passing a group of musicians on
the way to perform at Friday prayers.
“In Islam, this would be highly disrespectful given
the spiritual solemnity of Jumuah prayer, and an even
bigger mistake to be made by the ‘Commander of the
Faithful’ who claims part of the legitimacy of his rule
from his religious status,” wrote Moroccan blogger
Zineb Belmkaddem.
The action and tension of football bonds
a group and nurtures a belief that it can
do more than provide temporary relief
they helped overthrow. They have since been largely
barred from access to one of the things that gave meaning
to their lives – the weekly football match. Twice when the
ban on spectators was briefly lifted, subsequent violence
led to further injuries to and deaths of several fans.
Connecting politics and football
In Algeria, the upsurge in soccer-related violence serves
as a warning. Increases in public-sector wages and social
spending to fend off budding mass protests – inspired by
the overthrow of Mubarak and his Tunisian counterpart,
Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali – are failing to act as a buffer.
Frustration is mounting with the refusal of the country’s
gerontocracy, in control since independence, to share
power with a younger generation, as well as its inability
to create jobs and address housing problems.
A one-minute YouTube video leaves, at first glance,
little doubt about support for the Islamic State among
supporters of Moroccan football club Raja Club Athletic.
The clip shows fans of the Casablanca team, which prides
itself on its nationalist credentials dating back to its
opposition of colonial French rule and its reputation as the
team of ordinary Moroccans, chanting: “Daesh, Daesh,”
the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, and “God is
great, let’s go on jihad”. The recording appeared to affirm
54
underlying government responses to these, and multiple
other incidents, is a growing trend on both sides of the
Mediterranean to criminalise at least some militant and/
or violence-prone soccer fan groups. In Germany, one of
the world’s most sophisticated countries in its approach
toward radical football supporters, courts are considering
a restriction on gatherings of groups of hooligans on
the grounds that they engage in clashes among each
other with the risk of bodily harm. In Egypt and Turkey,
the governments are attempting to criminalise highly
politicised, street-battle-hardened fan groups on the
basis that they are terrorist organisations.
Football-related racism highlights Europe’s transition
from relatively ethnically homogeneous societies
into multicultural populations, amid a resurgence of
entrenched racist – including anti-Semitic – attitudes that
flourish in times of economic crisis and are not limited to
Muslim communities. Right-wing fans often have links to
racist political organisations that appear to be resurgent
after many years of decline.
European leaders have been at pains to insist that the
continent’s confrontation with political violence constitutes
a conflict with radicalism, rather than with Islam. Yet,
racism, both on and off the pitch, is rooted in entrenched
attitudes that became publicly taboo post-Second World
War, but were never eradicated.
They are reinforced by a failure
to acknowledge that immigration,
starting with decolonisation and a
wave of Mediterranean guest workers
in the 1960s, has changed the nature
of European society. However, racism
is apparent through discrimination in
education and employment and offthe-pitch football, among other areas.
A video showing supporters of Chelsea FC, which
includes several black players in its multinational squad,
chanting “we’re racist, we’re racist, and that’s the way we
like it”, as they repeatedly shoved a black, native Parisian
off one of the city’s metro trains because of his skin
colour, went viral on the internet in February. Days later,
Italian police arrested 23 fans of Feyenoord Rotterdam for
rioting in Rome and damaging the Baroque fountain on
the Spanish Steps in an act of vandalism.
Right-wing, self-styled hooligans from Germany were
supported by the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of
Germany (NPD). The two groups set aside rivalries to riot
in Cologne in October 2014 against the spread of what
they termed radical Islam, and pride themselves on also
targeting anarchists, Marxist-Leninists and other left-wing
extremists. Some 50 police officers were injured, while
20 fans were arrested, as a result of the clashes.
The failure to acknowledge societal change is
reflected in the fact that senior football management in
Europe does not reflect the cultural and racial diversity of
the population and the sport itself. Management remains
dominated by white males, some of whom have been
embroiled in controversy over racist and discriminatory
remarks in recent years.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
the Islamic State’s widespread emotional appeal to youth
across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in
Europe, rather than a willingness among young people
to become a foreign fighter in Syria or Iraq. That said,
there have been several arrests of nationals in Morocco on
suspicion of links to the jihadist group, and an estimated
1,500 Moroccans are believed to have joined its ranks.
Islamic State, despite its brutality and severe
enforcement of a puritan form of Islam, symbolises
successful resistance for many in the Middle East and
North Africa. Many are disillusioned by the failure of the
revolts that toppled four Arab leaders; the collapse and/
or intransigence of autocratic regimes that fail to live
up to aspirations; the lack of prospects for economic
advancement and political change; and the West’s refusal
to arm the rebels opposed to Syria’s President Bashar
al-Assad – also perceived as strengthening Assad, by
not supporting the foremost opposition to a regime that
matches the jihadists in its brutality.
“We have a high rate of unemployment. Young people
want politicians to think about them… Some of them
can’t understand… They are too impatient,” said Moncef
Marzouki – president of Tunisia, the Arab country with the
largest number of Arab foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq –
during in an interview with Al Jazeera.
“Hope for a more democratic Morocco is fading,
as the makhzen (the ruling group around the king)
went back to relying on its old ways, reassured by the
‘success’ of its systematic crackdown that is responsible
for disorganising groups of protestors through repression
and propaganda. Slowly dismantling the February 20th
protest movement over the past years, the regime seems to
have learned nothing and has chosen to walk backwards
to its dysfunctional comfort zone,” Belmkaddem added.
Speaking to The New York Times, activist Marouane
Morabit warned that “a major part of the political class
refused to discuss in public real issues concerning the
ills of our society, namely the role of the monarchy,
respect for human rights, the distribution of wealth, and
the separation of powers… The kingdom discredited the
left, trade unions, civil society and now the Islamists. It
will soon face a direct confrontation with the people, and
it will no longer have any safety valves.”
Football can serve as a release mechanism from
the sense of hopelessness that pervades the popular
neighbourhoods in North Africa and predominantly
migrant quarters in Europe. For some, the action and
tension of the game bonds a group and nurtures a belief
that it can do more than provide temporary relief. Also
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
55
Security and safety
In an interview with Press Association Sport, Piara
Powar, Executive Director of Football Against Racism in
Europe (FARE), warned that the wave of racism in soccer
was part of a broader picture. “People don’t respect ethnic
minorities, except as players,” said Powar.
Resistance to political and societal change is arguably
what motivated the Egyptian cabinet to lift the suspension
of professional football imposed after the Cairo stadium
incident, but reinstitute the ban on spectators attending
matches. The decision could spark renewed clashes
between militant fans and security forces.
Against the backdrop of mounting evidence that
Egyptian General-turned-President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
has no intention of easing repression, the decision
implicitly acknowledges the role of fans in continued
opposition to his rule.
Professional football was suspended in early February
after some 20 fans of Al Zamalek SC were killed in a
stampede at a Cairo stadium. The incident was likely to
have been the result of supporters seeking to gain access
to a match in the absence of available tickets, rather than
a deliberate and planned assault by security forces. UWK
is nevertheless convinced that it was targeted by security
forces, much like supporters of arch-rival team Al Ahly
were three years ago at Port Said.
Security and safety
The killing in August 2014 of Albert Dominique Ebossé
Bodjongo Dika, a 25-year-old Cameroonian who played for
Algerian club JS Kabylie (JSK), sent shockwaves through
African football. Ebossé was hit by a rock believed to have
been thrown by a JSK supporter upset the team had lost.
This death highlighted the mounting violence taking
place on and around Algerian pitches. Algerian midfielder
Hamza Bencherif, a friend of Ebossé, told the BBC’s
World Football that players ran risks whenever they
entered the pitch. “Every time we lose a game, (there
are) some rocks… Death is not far when a risk like that is
taken… It’s hard to see what (the football authorities) can
do because they allow so much freedom in the way the
stadiums are controlled. If they carry on that way, there is
absolutely nothing they can do,” said Bencherif, referring
to the government’s hands-off approach to violence and
protest in Algerian stadia.
Dozens of people, including a player, were injured in
November 2012 when supporters of Jeunesse Sportive
de la Saoura (JSS) stormed the pitch during a Premier
League match against Algiers-based Union Sportive de la
Médina d’El Harrach (USM). This followed a massive brawl
between players and between fans after a Libya-Algeria
Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. Seven fans have been killed
in the past five years in soccer-related violence and more
than 2,700 wounded, according to
Algerian statistics.
The incident has sparked heated
debate about the role that poor
social and economic conditions
and inadequate infrastructure play
in football-related fan violence.
“Violence in Algeria has become
ordinary and banal,” prominent
psychologist Mahmoud Boudarene
told the Associated Press.
He added that ‘hogra’, the
term Algerians use to describe the
government’s contempt for ordinary
citizens, has planted a sickness in Algerian society.
“People feel that the only way to get anything done is to
have connections or threaten the peace. It is a system
where hogra and social injustice rule. Social violence has
become the preferred mode of communication between
the citizen and the republic. Today in our country,
everything is obtained through a riot.”
During a massive riot at an Egyptian Premier League match in Port Said between
Al Masry and Al Ahly in 2012, 74 Al Ahly fans died and hundreds were injured
– Mahmoud Boudarene, Psychologist
Football has been suspended for much of the past four
years since the mass anti-government protests in 2011 that
forced President Hosni Mubarak from office. Spectators
have been banned from matches since 74 supporters of
Al Ahly were killed in 2012 in a politically loaded brawl in
Port Said. The stampede in Cairo was, after Port Said, the
worst sporting incident in recent Egyptian sporting history.
Militant, highly politicised, street-battle-hardened
supporters of both clubs played an important role in the
demonstrations that removed Mubarak from power and
in protests against all subsequent governments, including
that of Al Sisi. The fans have long called for an end to
bans on spectators and have repeatedly clashed with
security forces in protest against it.
The renewed ban is, as a matter of principle, unlikely
to go down well with the fans. UWK said earlier that it
has no faith in a government investigation of the Cairo
stampede or the Egyptian justice system and would
prevent matches from being played until justice had
been served for its martyrs.
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
A symbol of resistance
The Ebossé incident took on added significance because
JSK symbolizes the resistance to Algeria’s past attempts
to Arabize its Berbers, as well as the assertion of Berber
identity until their language was recognised in 2002. At
a match in February, JSK fans chanted slogans asserting
that the government was responsible for Ebosse’s death.
Fans attacked an assistant referee during the match and
threw missiles onto the pitch.
Stadiums have long been a nucleus of protest in
football-crazy Algeria. A 2007 diplomatic cable sent by
the US embassy in Algiers and disclosed by Wikileaks
STR/AP/PA Images
“Violence in Algeria has become
ordinary and banal. People feel that
the only way to get anything done is to
have connections or threaten the peace”
linked a football protest in the desert town Bou Saada to
demonstrations in the western port city of Oran, which
were sparked by a highly contentious list of government
housing recipients. The cable warned that “this kind of
disturbance has become commonplace, and appears likely
to remain so unless the government offers diversions other
than soccer and improves the quality of life of its citizens.”
The increase in violence threatens an understanding
between Algerian football fans and security forces,
allowing supporters to express their grievances – as long
as they only do so within the confines of the stadiums.
Discontent over lack of water, housing, electricity, jobs
and salaries pervades the country, sparking almost daily
protests inside and outside the stadiums and clashes with
security forces. A quarter of the Algerian population lives
under the poverty line and unemployment is rampant.
An estimated 70 per cent of Algeria’s 39 million people
are under 30 and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) puts unemployment at 21 per cent for under 35s.
Protests earlier this year in Laghouat and other oil- and
gas-producing cities, symbolic of simmering discontent,
have gone viral in social media. Soccer matches were
suspended during last year’s mass protests and will
be again during legislative elections in May this year.
“In a context of political closure, a lack of serious
political debates and projects for society and of a
weakened political society, football stadia become one of
the few occasions for the youth to gather, to feel a sense
of belonging (for 90 minutes at least), to express their
frustrations over their socio-economic condition, to mock
the symbol of the state’s authority and to transgress the
boundary of (imposed) political order and institutionalised
language, or the narrative of the state’s political and moral
legitimacy,” cautioned Algerian football scholar Mahfoud
Amara in Sport, Politics and Society in the Arab World.
James M Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S Rajaratnam
School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore, Co-Director of the Institute of
Fan Culture of the University of Wurzburg and the author
of the blog The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer,
and a book of the same title
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
57
Integrity
Integrity
Third-party ownership:
a risk to integrity?
T
hird-party ownership (TPO) agreements allow
another entity to become involved during the
transfer of a player from one club to another.
Under a TPO agreement, the investor will hold
a percentage of the economic rights to a player, and the
club will usually retain the federative rights (such as
the ability to register them with a national association).
When a player that is owned under a TPO agreement
is sold to another club, the investor will receive a
percentage of the fee.
TPO is largely a Latin American phenomenon. A
third-party owner will often pay promising young players
coming from poorer backgrounds, such as the favelas
(Brazilian slums), for the right to represent them in
contract negotiations, in return for a stake in any future
transfer. The player benefits from this arrangement
because they are paid. Clubs often view TPOs as similar
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
to a finder’s fee. As the club will only take a percentage
of the player’s sale value, it is often not worth selling
them until that percentage becomes large enough
to warrant attention, allowing them to keep talented
players, who might otherwise be sold, at the club.
However, TPO is also used by clubs in Europe,
primarily Portugal and Spain, to buy players that they
might not otherwise be able to afford, owing to one
or two major clubs dominating the league. During the
2013/14 season, Atlético Madrid won Spain’s La Liga
– reaching the final of the UEFA Champions League,
breaking Real Madrid and FC Barcelona’s domestic
rule. Although the club is heavily in debt, it recruited a
number of players using TPO. Whether or not this is good
depends on if you have a romantic view of underdogs.
In 2011, the English Premier League notified UEFA
that the Premier League’s ban on TPO agreements could
Cultura Creative (RF)/Alamy
In December 2014, the FIFA Executive Committee announced that it would
ban third-party ownership of footballers from 1 May 2015. Andy Brown
explores the perceived risks to integrity it presents, but also what may be lost
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
59
Integrity
Integrity
Atlético Madrid players throw their coach in the air after
winning the first league title in 18 years. Although heavily
in debt, the club was able to buy players using TPO
put it at a competitive disadvantage compared with other
European clubs. This is because when buying a player,
a Premier League club would have to account for the
whole of the transfer fee when submitting their records
to be assessed by UEFA for compliance with its Financial
Fair Play regulations. This is in contrast to non-Premier
League clubs, which would only have to detail the amount
was almost entirely subsidised by a football investment
fund. It is perhaps easy to understand the Premier
League’s argument that such deals distort competition.
Another more recent example of how TPO can
influence a transfer is Marcos Rojo’s €20 million move
from Sporting Lisbon to Manchester United last year.
Sporting Lisbon President Bruno de Carvalho indicated
that the club did not want to sell
the player, but was pressured to
by Doyen Sports, which reportedly
owned 75 per cent of the economic
rights to the player. Doyen Sports
sold the economic rights to the player
when he went to England. Supporters
of a TPO ban would point to how this
moved large sums of money out of
the game – and into private hands.
A 2013 study conducted by accountancy firm KPMG
estimates that the market share of players under TPO
agreements in Europe’s leagues is between 5.1 per cent
and 7.8 per cent. However, many Latin American leagues
are structured around TPO, and will use clubs in countries
with linguistic links, such as Spain and Portugal, as a
gateway to export footballers to Europe. According to
The Premier League’s ban on TPOs could
put it at a competitive disadvantage
compared with other European clubs
spent in taking a stake in a player, which could be, for
example, 50 per cent of the fee.
An extreme example of this is demonstrated by the
transfer of goalkeeper Roberto Jiménez Gago from Benfica
to Real Zaragoza during the 2011 summer transfer window.
Zaragoza, which was in administration at the time, paid
just €86,000 of the €8.6 million transfer fee, as the deal
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Jane Mingay/AP/PA Images
Manu Fernandez/AP/PA Images
The discussion over TPO started in 2007, when
West Ham was charged by the Premier League
for not revealing details about third parties
relating to Carlos Teves and Javier Mascherano
FIFA’s Transfer Matching System, 512 Brazilians were
transferred between 1 January and 25 February 2015 –
double that of rival Argentina.
“In 2013, according to the FIFA database, agents
received $216 million from clubs in commission arising
out of international transfers,” writes Eduardo Carlezzo,
an attorney with Carlezzo Advogados Associados, in
World Sports Law Report. “Brazilian clubs, in the same
year, earned $312 million from international player
transfers. An expected consequence of these numbers
would be a large amount of money being paid by Brazilian
clubs to agents. Surprisingly, the Brazilian clubs declared
on FIFA’s electronic Transfer Matching System (TMS)
that they paid only $400,000 in agent fees. It has to
be underlined that the TMS only accepts payments to
licensed agents. Therefore, it is clear that the Brazilian
clubs have been paying a lot of money to non-licensed
agents and these amounts are not included in the
declarations on FIFA’s TMS. This constitutes financial
evidence that, in Brazil, the agent licensing system
was not working properly.”
The whole debate over TPO might have never
happened, had it not been for West Ham Football Club.
In 2007, West Ham was charged by the Premier League
for failing to disclose third-party agreements relating to
Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. At the time, the
Premier League did not ban third-party ownership of
players as such, but banned agreements that allowed
outside bodies to influence the performance of its teams.
A short history lesson
Had West Ham disclosed the agreement, the Premier
League might not have felt it was necessary to ban TPO,
which it did through rules L34 and L35 after its annual
general meeting in June 2008 (now U39 and U40 of the
Premier League Handbook). FIFA followed by introducing
Article 18bis into the 2008 version of its Regulations on
the Status and Transfer of Players, which banned any club
from entering into a contract that allowed a third party the
“ability to influence in employment and transfer-related
matters its independence, its policies or the performance
of its teams”. FIFA has never sanctioned any club for
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
61
Integrity
Integrity
to implement the Executive Committee’s wish for a ban.
It therefore came as a shock when FIFA issued Circular
1464, which outlined a total ban on TPO from 1 May
2015. “No club or player shall enter into an agreement
with a third party whereby a third party is being entitled
to participate, either in full or in part, in compensation
payable in relation to the future transfer of a player from
one club to another, or is being assigned any rights in
relation to a future transfer or transfer compensation,”
reads the new Article 18ter. A ‘third party’ is defined as
“a party other than the two clubs transferring a player
from one to the other, or any previous club, with which
the player has been registered”.
“My reading of this is that a third party constitutes
anyone, excluding the two clubs involved in the transfer
and excluding any previous club that the player has
registered with,” said Richard Berry, an Associate with
Lewis Silkin. It is unclear whether this definition allows
FIFA to sanction clubs for ‘bridge transfers’, where a player
is transferred from one club to another through a third
club. “There are doubts today regarding what constitutes
a ‘third party’,” writes Carlezzo. “For example, are ‘bridge
clubs’ third parties?”
Michel Platini, President of UEFA, stated his opposition
to TPO at a meeting with EU sports ministers. Platini
argued that the agreements deprive players of free
will and could potentially lead to match-fixing
as to why FIFA introduced the TPO ban when it did, in the
manner that it did. One theory is that FIFA brought the
ban in to trump UEFA, which was on the verge of issuing
its own ban on TPO for its competitions.
It is understood that leagues were beginning to
draft their own regulations on TPO, and this may have
influenced FIFA’s timing.
What the legislation means
What the ban actually covers has also been the subject
of some confusion and speculation, especially around
the transitional arrangements for TPOs already in place,
and those agreed before it comes into effect on 1 May.
Agreements in place at the start of this year will be valid
until their “contractual expiration”. However, they are not
extendable. Agreements made between 1 January 2015
and 1 May 2015 “may not have a contractual duration
of more than one year beyond the date of them being
signed”. It is expected that a lot of agreements will be
concluded at the end of April, before the ban takes effect.
“Any well-drafted TPO contract will keep the player
at that club for as long as possible,” says Simon Pentol,
a barrister at 25 Bedford Row. “You could have a situation
where a player is at a club on a
TPO that was entered into prior to
31 December 2014, and that TPO –
if it is well drafted – will state that
the agreement ends when the
player is sold. What if, in those
circumstances, the club decides to
just loan the player out to a number
of different clubs indefinitely?”
It also appears that player
investment funds could be caught
by the ban. A source who is involved
with structuring funds that involve
third-party investment in football
players has had to abandon what he described as a
‘unique and comprehensive structure’ due to the ban.
However, others are apparently carrying on as normal and
emails proposing new player investment funds have been
received this year, after FIFA outlined its ban.
“What is covered by the ban and what is not covered
is subject to some debate,” explains Levy. “It is quite an
extensive wording when you read the Article. It is not just
TPO, it is also TPI – i.e. investment in players – that is
forbidden,” he continues.
Regulation often sparks innovation, and with confusion
over what the ban covers, speculators have been busy
doing what speculators do. “What’s not been considered
is that due to the sums of money involved, people are still
going to want to invest in the transfer market,” said the
investment fund source. “They are just going to have to
find another way to do it. Some of the people that I speak
to in Brazil are worried about what they are going to do
and how to comply. Some of the clubs over there are still
doing 12-month contracts while they have permission to
do it. They are worried about what’s going to replace the
money generated by TPO and what other mechanisms
“The essential values of integrity and
sincerity that should be embodied in
sport are being scorned... There is no
place for TPO... in European sport”
ITAR-TASS Photo Agency/Alamy
– Michel Platini, President, UEFA
breaching Article 18bis alone. France and Poland are the
only other countries to have introduced an outright ban.
Following up the Premier League’s concerns, in
December 2012 UEFA decided that TPO should be
prohibited ‘as a matter of principle’, and asked FIFA
to issue regulations. By October 2014, FIFA had yet to
take any further action on TPO and UEFA was getting
increasingly frustrated. “With insidious methods and
ruthless objectives, this phenomenon shows a blatant
disregard for human dignity, the integrity of our
competitions and even the financing of grassroots sport,”
UEFA President Michel Platini said at a meeting of EU
sports ministers in Rome. “Third-party ownership of
players refers to the situation where a player is – to put
it bluntly – carved up into economic rights, which are
then shared between one or more investment funds.
The players concerned lose their contractual freedom,
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
as the owners of their economic rights abuse the powers
entrusted to them and secure lucrative financial deals
at the players’ expense. They are therefore deprived of
their free will. And what do you think would happen if
the same fund owned the economic rights of a number
of players in different teams in the same competition?
The answer is simple: the nightmare of match-fixing could
rear its ugly head. The essential values of integrity and
sincerity that should be embodied in sport are therefore
being scorned, even violated... There is no place for thirdparty ownership of players in European sport. A tailormade legal framework is therefore required. If we fail to
deal with this properly, it will not just be a defeat for UEFA,
nor even just for the sports movement, but for all Europe.
There is therefore an urgent need to act and respond.”
In September last year, FIFA tasked a newly formed
TPO working group with drafting technical regulations
FIFA’s administration may not have been ready for
the speed with which the Executive Committee took its
decision. This is reflected by the shaky wording of the
ban in Circular 1464, which sports lawyers agree is not
well drafted. “So many terms and phrases used here are
unclear and undefined,” said John Mehrzad, a barrister
with Littleton Chambers. “It almost invites a challenge.”
That challenge materialised on 9 February, when
the Portuguese and Spanish football leagues filed a
complaint with the European Commission, stating that
the ban violated Article 101 (distortion of competition)
and Article 102 (abuse of a dominant position) of the
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).
At the time of publication, the European Commission
had yet to respond to the complaint.
“FIFA’s legal department didn’t exactly say that they
weren’t expecting the TPO ban to stand, but they gave
the impression that is what they thought might happen,”
says Roy Levy, an associate with Probst, which organised a
conference on 12 February about the TPO ban. “They don’t
have a plan B, so if this is set aside, then we don’t know
what will happen.” There has also been some speculation
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Integrity
they can use. They will comply, but they have investors
queuing up to participate, so the question is, is there any
legal way in which they can still invest?”
Two options were consistently mentioned, and so are
perhaps worth consideration: club ownership and squad
funding. “If you own a club as part of the structure, then
it’s fine, because you’re just registered as part of a club
and it isn’t considered TPO,” said the investment fund
source. “So if investors want a part of the transfer market,
then they just buy a cheap club. This will be fine for major
investors, but it will shut out guys who are just putting a
couple of hundred grand into a fund. I can’t see how they
are going to be able to participate.”
New forms of funding
Another option that people are apparently looking at is
squad funding. This involves investing in more than one
single player. An investor could, for example, give a loan to
a club and take security on a number of different options.
Then, within the loan agreement, there is a mechanism
whereby when a player is sold, the investor gets paid.
“Certainly you are not allowed to invest in one
player, but perhaps you could invest in a few players
or an entire team, put them into a new company, and
then invest in that company,” explains Levy. “You don’t
have an influence on one particular player, but you could
still participate in any future benefit from a sale.”
There are also other options.
Integrity
way or another grant the third party some sort of power
and control over the club,” Majani continues.
However, this could prove difficult for European
clubs. “If you are in UEFA’s competitions, you basically
have to disclose your books, so it’s hard to see how
there could be circumvention,” says Stephen Sampson,
a partner with Squire Patton Boggs who is involved
with player transfers. “However, FIFA needs to issue
some sort of clarification as to what is covered by the
ban and what isn’t.”
There is actually little available evidence to suggest
TPO agreements present the potential for match-fixing,
as claimed by Platini last year. However, there is evidence
that despite FIFA’s Article 18bis, TPO agreements have
been affecting how and when a club transfers a player
for some time. Rojo’s transfer from Sporting Lisbon to
Manchester United is a prime example.
“As a lawyer, you can see how you might draft
regulations to deal with TPO,” says Sampson. “But there
are some fundamental issues. First is the idea that these
third-party owners don’t have an influence. Second is
how it affects the relationship between employee and
employer. It’s a different relationship that is considered
by some to have no place in football. Thirdly, there are
many that think it affects the integrity of competition.”
However, without TPO, clubs such as Atlético Madrid
will have to come up with new sources of revenue if
they want to continue to compete at the same level as
before. If they are unable to find
that revenue, then what will fill that
gap? “Ajax [a Dutch football team]
told me that if they cannot use TPO
anymore, they will be in big trouble
because they can’t afford to pay big
salaries such as those in the Premier
League,” says Levy. “It was always
part of club contracts that the player
himself received a share of any future
transfer. This was part of the entire compensation deal
that Ajax used, otherwise they would not have been able
to acquire Luis Suárez or other players.”
Sporting Lisbon President Bruno de Carvalho said the
club did not want to sell Marcos Rojo to Manchester
United, but felt pressured by the third-party owners
“The TPO ban only extends to prohibiting a club
or player from entering into an agreement with a third
party whereby the latter is entitled to either fully or
partially participate in any compensation payable in
relation to the future transfer of a player from one
club to another, or to be assigned rights in relation to
a future transfer or transfer compensation,” explains
Felix Majani, who is a consultant for international law
firm Coelho Ribeiro e Associados, as well as the Council
for East and Central Africa Football Associations.
“Strictly speaking, the ban only applies to a third
party having a say or stake in the transfer or transfer
fees regarding a player. Given that TPO is all about
clubs seeking alternative sources of money, I see no
reason as to why a club cannot enter into an agreement
with a third party under which the latter could pay all the
salaries and expenses, which would otherwise be payable
by the club to its players, for example in exchange for the
club ceding the image rights of its players or other rights
not directly related to the transfer or transfer fees to be
derived from the player. Such an agreement could in one
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Financial fair play
While everything is in limbo, it is understood that investors
have put their cash on ice despite the ban not being in
force, threatening the financial situation of some clubs.
“There are well-known investors that will not put any more
money into the transfer market,” writes Carlezzo.
Traffic Sports is a big investor in Latin American
football. “It will be interesting to see how they go forward,”
says Pentol. “The clubs in South America feel like they
are being dictated to by UEFA,” said the investment fund
source. “This is how they structure their leagues.”
There is no doubt that TPO takes money out of the
game, and that money can go into the pockets of investors
that are outside football, about whom little is known.
However, this argument could also be advanced against
football agents, image rights companies and a number
of other organisations.
Kieran McManus/BPI/Corbis
There is evidence that TPO agreements
have been affecting how and when a
club transfers a player for some time
Latin American clubs and leagues have developed
around TPO, which is considered a crucial source of
finance. In the age of financial fair play, is it fair for the
rich European clubs to take away that source of finance,
forcing Latin American clubs to sell their star players at
a younger age and for a lower price?
This cannot have been the intention of FIFA’s ban.
If you remove half a club’s revenue, who is going to step
up to fill the gap? If the new investment structures are
acceptable, will they prove any better than the previous
methods? Who will run them? Will third-party owners
merely become involved in investing in clubs rather
than players and is that any better?
Convicted match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal recently
explained how he set up a company to fix international
games for illegal bookmakers. He then claims to have
offered to fix Nigeria’s qualification for the 2010 FIFA
World Cup in exchange for an official mandate to
organise pre-World Cup games. Article 18ter has been
designed to protect against these kind of dangers.
All TPO agreements will have to be recorded within
FIFA’s TMS. It will be interesting to see what FIFA says
about any innovative agreements, and what its view
will be on squad funding, or club loans with guarantees
of payment if a player is sold.
National Associations and FIFA will have to police
compliance with Article 18ter better than they did
previously with Article 18bis in order to ensure that
individuals such as Perumal are not able to fill the
funding gap at any level of the game.
It will also be interesting to see if the Portuguese
and Spanish leagues’ complaint is taken up by the
European Commission – and if FIFA can defend Article
18ter by arguing that there is not a less restrictive way
to preserve the integrity of the football transfer system
other than with a complete ban of TPOs.
Andy Brown is Editor at the Sports Integrity Initiative
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Integrity
Integrity
From the sidelines
The United States could take a strong lead in combating international threats
to sports integrity, argues Chris Celestino, but its ability to do so is hampered
by its ineffective prohibition model of gambling regulation
O
n 17 February 2015, more than two hundred
countries tuned in when Paris St Germain,
a Qatari-owned, Emirati-sponsored French
football club, hosted Chelsea FC, a Russianowned, Korean-sponsored English club, in a European
tournament backed by, among others, Japanese,
American and Taiwanese companies.
This is sport – or at least football – in the era of
globalisation. Such interconnectedness has changed sport
in many positive ways, but has also created and sustained
criminal networks that now exploit sport through illegal
gambling, corruption and match-fixing.
While sport and crime have ‘globalised’ in near
lockstep, governance and ethical leadership have not
kept pace. The result is that fragmented, ill-prepared
institutions are left to defend the integrity of sport
against coordinated, well-funded criminal enterprises.
Throughout key periods of US history, isolationism
was considered a cornerstone of growth and security.
George Washington warned against foreign entanglements
in his farewell address to a young nation, while the sixth
president, John Quincy Adams, proclaimed that the US
“goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy”.
This brand of isolationism characterised the US
sports sector in the 20th century: grow, consolidate and
dominate domestically with little export or import motive.
As intended, this inwardly focused strategy fostered
financial stability and strong, if imperfect, league-level
regulatory infrastructure. Like the US itself, the country’s
sports leagues eventually began to embrace international
opportunities, bringing them face to face with both the
prospects and problems of globalised sport.
This began not with exports, but with imports. On the
opening day of 2014, more than 26 per cent of players in
Major League Baseball (MLB) were
foreign born – up from eight per cent
in 1980. While the National Hockey
League was once almost exclusively
North American, it draws 33 per cent
of its players from abroad. The
National Basketball Association is
more than 20 per cent foreign born,
a figure that was less than two per cent in 1980. This race
for international talent brought US sports into the perilous
world of unstructured player acquisition, far from the
social, cultural and ethical norms that bound domestic
personnel management. Latin American baseball agents
known as buscones blurred the line between scouting
and player trafficking, while, in Eastern Europe, organised
crime lurked behind players and clubs negotiating with
the NBA at times. However eye-opening and ethically
ambiguous some of these adventures may have been,
a lack of interconnectedness typically meant that the
players were imported, but the problems were not.
As imported influences grew, leagues began to
recognise the potential for the growth of US sports abroad,
ushering in a race to secure prominence in foreign markets.
Europe and Asia have become the two battlegrounds in
which US sports are fighting for influence. MLB, already
popular in many parts of Asia, has hosted exhibition
games in China and Taiwan, and regular-season games in
Sport and crime have globalised in near
lockstep, but governance has not kept up
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Having been ignored for years, the risks posed by the
criminal corruption of sport are now better understood
by sports bodies, the media and the public. Proposed
solutions, however, too often have political or institutional
limitations that fail in the face of an adversary that operates
easily across borders and jurisdictions. As a result,
national-level structures, while admirable, have repeatedly
failed to deal with globalised corruption in sport.
How, then, could an increased level of engagement
by one country become a tipping point for the battle
against corruption, particularly when that country has
historically given priority to its domestic sporting agenda?
The United States has considerable potential to influence
governments internationally, but historically the country
has not used this capability to its full extent. There is a
clear path towards correcting those problems, though –
one that would align incentives, as well as bringing the
US’s existing influence and expertise to bear on integrity
challenges within sports.
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Integrity
Japan and Australia. The NBA has opened offices in China,
leveraging the incredible popularity of player Yao Ming as
a springboard for engagement. NBA Commissioner Adam
Silver, invoking the historic US expansionist rhetoric,
stated recently that it was the NBA’s “manifest destiny
to expand” to Europe. Meanwhile, the National Football
League has similarly declared its commitment to plans to
establish a franchise in London.
US sports were not the only ones expanding at the
turn of the century. Having spent the 1990s corrupting
Asian sport to the point of collapse, Asian organised
criminals began to export match-fixing, illegal betting, and
corruption, particularly to European soccer. In line with the
explosion of online gambling, the respective expansions of
US sports and Asian crime have put the two on a collision
course. This highly mature, entrenched, and dedicated
network of criminals is no longer just an Asian or European
problem, but one with which US sports – and regulators –
must now contend. The era of blissful isolation is over.
Integrity
Former FIFA executive Chuck Blazer was recruited as
an informant by the FBI, which demonstrates the US’s
proactive approach to combating sports corruption
Adam Silver, the NBA Commissioner, has argued
that legalising sports gambling would ensure that
it could be properly controlled and regulated
The price of isolation
Pot, kettle, black market
Years of domestic focus have, however, blinded US
sporting institutions to the power of the Asian gambling
market and the impact that domestic policy approaches
have on integrity risks. For years, the leagues have fought
to preserve a prohibition model of gambling regulation,
which, far from thwarting would-be corruptors, plays right
into their hands. Support from the leagues has allowed the
US to be one of the last developed nations clinging to a
prohibition-based model. As a result, the US has a thriving
illegal market, estimated at $400 billion per year. The
American Gaming Association estimated that illegal bets
in the US on the 2014 Super Bowl totalled $3.8 billion.
That is roughly 38 times what is typically bet legally on
the Super Bowl, and is more than the combined revenue
of all Nevada sportsbooks for all sports in 2013, standing
at $3.62 billion. The United States, and in particular the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have dedicated huge
resources to tackling illegal gambling and its associated
crimes, such as tax evasion and money laundering. Those
efforts have met with certain noteworthy successes, but
have not shrunk the scale of the illegal market.
Arguably more concerning from the perspective
of potential US sports integrity leadership efforts, the
prohibition model allows other countries, particularly
China, to point to the US as justification for their similarly
structured, and similarly ineffective, policies. As is also the
case with domestic narcotics consumption, the US loses
credibility in tackling illicit international betting networks
due to the scale of its own illegal market and the demand
it creates for overseas, unregulated operators.
The US already has a proven model for legal and
highly regulated sports betting in Nevada, which could be
expanded state by state and overseen nationally. If sports
gambling were legalised, the US could then point to such a
regulatory framework as a model when seeking to promote
international efforts against illicit financial networks.
Nowhere could such US influence be more effective
than in the Philippines, arguably the next big destination
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
swiftness of action in dealing with corruption, racism and
other threats to the integrity of the sport, characterised
by Silver’s handling of former Los Angeles Clippers owner
Donald Sterling. After being recorded on video making
racist remarks, which were released by entertainment site
TMZ in April 2014, Sterling was issued a lifetime ban by
the NBA. Silver took a legal and financial risk to dismiss
Sterling, something many of his contemporaries in global
sport, not to mention his predecessor at the NBA, have
been loath to do. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)
Director General David Howman recently claimed that
25 per cent of global sport was controlled by organised
crime – a shocking but not unrealistic estimate. With so
many leaders incapable of leading by example, the impact
of Silver’s strong moral stance, unabridged by financial
motivation, could have huge implications for returning
sport to its rightful, respected place in society.
David Bernal/Corbis
for the money launderers and criminal networks that
are slowly being squeezed out of Macau by Xi Jinping’s
anti-corruption campaign. The Philippines is already a
key node in the global illegal online gambling market,
while huge brick-and-mortar casinos are sprouting up
in Manila and attracting Chinese junket operators. Given
the deep historical and cultural ties between the US and
the Philippines, there is no country better positioned for
influencing at what is a formative time for the gaming
industry. Rather than waiting for the influx of money
laundering and criminal enterprise to take control, the
United States could, by acting now, leverage its influence
to insist upon the regulatory measures and enforcement
necessary to forestall that eventuality.
Redirecting the will, authority and leadership of US
regulatory institutions also has potential implications for
the broader fight against corruption in sport. Match-fixing
often grabs the headlines, but the corrosive, persistent
ethical failures of prominent sports institutions arguably
pose a bigger threat. Unlike many others, the US has
already demonstrated a willingness to act in such cases.
Long before FIFA became mired in the Garcia report saga
– a controversial investigation into corruption during the
2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes – the FBI had,
under threat of prosecution, recruited former FIFA Executive
Committee member Chuck Blazer as an informant. While
Larry Smith/Alamy
European media and governments wrote sharply worded
opinion pieces and held meetings to recriminate FIFA, the
FBI was giving Blazer a recording device hidden in a key
fob in order to catch officials in the act.
The US is far from immune to sports corruption –
after all, it has its own burgeoning FIFA-type problems with
the NFL and the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) – but showing willingness to legally pressurise
sports organisations into ethical behaviour is a trait that
is worth spreading.
Even though the timing and incentives are aligned
for increased US involvement in sports integrity, such a
policy shift needs a champion. The US has that in the
form of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. In a landmark
New York Times op-ed, Silver reversed the league’s longheld opposition to legalised sports gambling, writing that
“sports betting should be brought out of the underground
and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately
monitored and regulated”. Silver’s lead-by-example
approach goes beyond sports betting. During his tenure,
the NBA has also demonstrated a clarity of thought and
In an era cynical of US global leadership, the largely
European sports integrity movement may be reticent to
welcome input from a sports society that has so long been
focused on its own domestic agenda. This hesitation will
only be exacerbated by the central role that football plays
in sports integrity discussions and the often European
view that the US is somehow unqualified on the topic.
The same dynamics – albeit with differing geographical
power structures – are present in cricket as well. In
response to such provincialism, outsiders rightly claim
that existing sporting leaders have proved incapable of
managing their respective sports and it is therefore time
for new ideas and new leadership.
There is some truth to such claims, but there is a
larger, more important point. The failures of integrity – on
and off the pitch – are, in essence, not sporting problems,
but instead crime and ethics problems manifested through
sport. Thus the leadership and expertise required is not
particular to a given sport (or even sport in general),
but rather to a given set of experiences, capabilities and
incentives. Traditional power structures, and particularly
certain individuals within them, can still be a source of
such qualities, and the US can, with the right policies
and proper focus, bring its own unique and powerful
expertise and influence to bear.
The onus is on the US to discard counterproductive
prohibitionist policies, acknowledge the impracticality
of its sporting isolation, and assume an influential role
in the sports integrity movement. It is neither possible
nor desirable for the US to remain isolated from sports
integrity debates. A failure to confront the threats and
seize the opportunities would make hypocrites of those
claiming a commitment to protecting sport. To paraphrase
the most reluctant of interventionists, Woodrow Wilson:
there is a price that is too great to pay for staying on the
sidelines, and that price is self-respect.
Chris Celestino is a former United States diplomat now
working in the private sector in Switzerland. He can be
found on Twitter at @securegame
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Integrity
Integrity
v
The rise of E-sports:
vulnerabilities and opportunities
Jake Marsh examines the rapidly growing E-sports sector, highlighting its
vulnerabilities to match-fixing operations and betting fraud, and suggesting that
these problems represent an opportunity to explore better models of governance
Lionel Bonaventure/Getty Images
T
he phenomenon of E-sports – video game
matches and tournaments – is growing so
rapidly that while it is not considered a sport
in the traditional sense of the word, it is taking
on characteristics that merit attention, and that may
provide lessons for the traditional sport sector.
Worldwide audiences for E-sports are now at levels
comparable with sports such as tennis and basketball,
and are expected to grow further in the next five years.
The importance of the sector is such that the United
States granted professional athlete visas for League
of Legends players in 2013.
In 1997, the first professional E-sports league was
established, and since then the scene has grown to
incorporate hundreds of tournaments. In the past two
or three years, this growth has been manifest in well
attended stadium-style events, huge prize funds
(some are more than $10 million), sponsorship
(Coke-Cola and Red Bull, among others), advertising,
worldwide followers and mass participation. In January
2015, WME | IMG announced its acquisition of the
talent agency Global eSports Management (GEM),
effectively moving the sport business giant into
professional gamer representation for the first time.
The expansion of the industry is soon to be
exemplified by the launch of Britain’s first dedicated
E-sports stadium in London. Scheduled to open in
March, it will accommodate up to 600 spectators for
each event. The company behind this venture, the
online platform Gfinity, is reportedly investing £350,000
($521,000) to upgrade a cinema venue and will expand
to similar sites in the United Kingdom. Platforms such
The crowd cheers during an international League of Legends tournament
in Paris, June 2014. The E-sports industry has seen rapid growth in
recent years, with audience numbers comparable to traditional sports
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71
Integrity
Integrity
Cloud 9 team members following the action
during a 2014 League of Legends tournament in
California, US. It was estimated that 89 million
people tuned into live tournaments last year
Imaginechina/Corbis
League of Legends players compete at the International E-sports
Festival in Wuhan, China. The top five earning players in the world all
originate from the country and have each made more than $1 million
as Gfinity also offer gamers the opportunity to subscribe
so they can compete against others or watch live matches.
The site E-sports Earnings lists the top 100 players
by winnings – and shows that the top five gamers, all
from China, have each earned over $1 million, while the
person that is ranked 100 has made more than $200,000.
South Korea, considered the birthplace of E-sports, saw
around 45,000 people attend the Sangam Stadium, which
As part of the X-Games in Aspen in January 2015, a
Counter-Strike tournament was included with teams
competing for gold medals and prize money. According
to one video game research company, there were over
89 million E-sports enthusiasts watching livestreams
of professional gamers playing tournaments in 2014.
These are just some of the dynamics associated
with the sport’s growth. It should come as no surprise,
then, that a sport dependant on the
internet – its growth is largely due to
the ability to stream live matches –
for its existence should also be seeing
a rise in online betting interest and,
as a consequence, betting fraud and
match-fixing. Even court-siding could
become an issue. There are already
reports of individuals gaining access
to tournaments in order to place bets
ahead of the ‘live’ stream, which is
often a few minutes behind.
While E-sports has only seen significant uptake in
recent years, betting markets are offered already, for
example, through companies such as Pinnacle Sports,
188Bet, William Hill and bet365. This simply reflects how
quickly the connected electronic market moves. Asian
bookmakers CMDbet and MaxBet (previously known as
Favoured teams have been accused
of deliberately performing badly, and
allegations of gamblers linked to losing
sides have surfaced
was used for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, for the League
of Legends World Championships. The prize fund for the
tournament totalled just over $2 million. The games in
question are mainly real-time strategy games (RTS), such
as Dota 2 and Starcraft, and massively multiplayer online
games (MMOs), such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
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them, and thereby winnings and losses are calculated.
Crucially, these items can be resold on specialist websites
in exchange for actual money.
There have already been a number of instances of
alleged match-fixing in E-sports tournament matches
and, as the industry’s popularity continues to grow, there
is a strong possibility that these will grow in proportion.
The majority of fixes to date have been ‘favourites’
betting on opponents and deliberately losing matches.
As with other sports, match-fixing has occurred when little
or no prize money has been on offer, but rewards are still
possible through betting fraud. In this way, match-fixing
can be driven by players themselves looking to maximise
the reward from being involved in tournaments, especially
when no prize fund is available.
The E-sports industry has reportedly seen a rise in
match-fixing cases, whereby players have either been
bribed to lose, have placed bets on the outcome of a
match they were playing in and lost deliberately, or had
friends bet on them to lose. Moreover, heavily favoured
teams have been accused of deliberately performing
badly, and allegations of gamblers being linked to losing
sides have surfaced. In the past few months, Valve, the
company behind Counter-Strike, has banned several
players from tournaments as a result of a match-fixing
investigation and improper use of insider information.
The gaming site PCGamesN reported that an assistant
team manager alleged on Twitter that match-fixing has
become endemic in the professional Korean Starcraft 2
scene. The assistant team manager also suggested that
some professional players are conspiring with gamblers to
fix results. Furthermore, the report indicated that Korean
gamblers are sponsoring tournaments in order to gain
access to competitors and matches. The betting link to
match-fixing may be made more complex by some betting
sites offering the option to make wagers using bitcoins,
which essentially allow owners to bet anonymously. The
benefits for match-fixers are therefore easy to see.
Safeguarding players
Robyn Beck/Getty Images
IBC Bet) have also entered the market. Typical bets include
‘match-winner’, ‘match handicap’ and ‘total rounds’.
The demand for betting on competitive gaming is
growing. Established betting providers such as Pinnacle
Sports, which has its own E-sports ‘hub’, offer a variety
of ways to bet, as do sites for the games. Pinnacle Sports
announced on 18 December 2014 that it had accepted its
one-millionth E-sports bet. The company says this type
now ranks above golf and rugby in terms of popularity
with its bettors and is now also sponsoring some events.
Some games have betting sites targeted at fans,
such as CS:GO Lounge for Counter-Strike. It has its own
gambling portal, details of upcoming matches with odds
and even includes video guides to betting. It also allows
individuals to place bets with in-game items – which are
predominately weapons. They have values attached to
Despite the evident popularity and enjoyment gained from
E-sports, there is now arguably – in the way it is currently
developing – a significant risk of children and young
people being exposed to gambling, betting fraud and
match-fixing. These represent risks that their parents,
and they themselves, are possibly not even aware of.
This is not to say betting firms are part of the
problem. They will have appropriate systems in place
to prevent underage gambling. It is also the case that
companies such as Gfinity, which organise tournaments,
place age restrictions on both entrants and spectators.
The Gfinity Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Open taking
place in April 2015 states on its website that players and
audience members must be over 18. This is done in line
with the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) rating.
This is a good example of a responsible approach.
However, it is likely that as E-sports grow, so will the
associated betting markets, which could see poorly
regulated or illegal betting sites become a reality.
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73
The CS:GO Lounge website mentioned earlier has a
rules section, which includes the following: “By placing
a bet on CSGO Lounge you are confirming that you are
in abidance with your country’s laws which allow you to
participate in skin-betting. This is generally 18 years of age
or older, but make sure to check. If we have any questions
regarding your age, we have the right to freeze your
account and ask you for documents to confirm your age.”
The website, eSportsventure.com, registered in Malta
and regulated by the country’s Lotteries and Gaming
Authority, has a registration page to set up an account
and a tick box to declare you are over 18. Similarly,
egamingbets.com, located in Costa Rica (where betting
websites can operate if they are serving foreign markets,
and which is known to have a lax attitude to gambling
regulation), provides drop-down menus to ‘prove’
your age. Therefore, it would appear there are limited
safeguards in place on such sites to prevent children
and young people from betting using other people’s
(such as parents’) credit card details.
ICSS Journal spoke to Betfair, which confirmed they
do not offer E-sports gambling. They made it clear that
preventing underage gambling is paramount to them,
not only from a moral angle, but also from a licensing
Integrity
who will want to get involved. Buck believes that, just as
gambling has become normalised with sport, the E-sports
market could go the same way, helping to create a ticking
time-bomb of gambling addicts in the coming years.
The International e-Sports Federation (IeSF) is based
in Seoul, Korea and has 43 member nations from Europe,
Asia, Africa, North and South America and Oceania. It is
not clear what oversight the IeSF has over these countries’
tournaments, or those that are not member nations,
such as the UK and US. It does not have jurisdiction
over privately organised tournaments, however, one of
the federation’s future priorities may be to increase its
influence and establish a set of regulations that can be
implemented in those events. The IeSF Statute does include
references to integrity, fair play, ethics and preventing
manipulation. While this is laudable, it may be that the
body needs to augment these with specific rules around
betting and match-fixing, as these are not included in their
Competition Regulations, which mainly appear to focus on
world championships and not tournaments in general.
Chul Woong (Alex) Lim, Secretary General of the
IeSF, who is responsible for organising and operating
world-championship level e-Sports tournaments, is also a
Non-Executive Director of VGambling, an internet betting
company licensed in Canada and
Antigua. VGambling’s website says
it intends to bring the worlds of video
gaming and betting together so that
it can “lead a global ‘online video
gambling’ industry.”
The President and CEO of
VGambling, Grant Johnson, told
ICSS Journal that he believes
E-sports have a great opportunity
to put in place best practice in relation to betting and
match-fixing, and that “integrity and transparency are
critical to the future of this business”. Regarding betting
markets, Johnson stated that at present “from what we
have seen, most E-sport betting is taking place in a grey
market environment.” He believes companies operating
in this space need to be properly regulated and licensed.
Johnson says VGambling takes a “proven practices
approach”, whereby it utilises services that have been
market tested in the casino business and modifies them
for the E-sports market. They can ensure the location of
the individual placing the bets is from a jurisdiction where
the activity is not illegal, along with age verification of all
players wishing to open accounts.
Lim says that research is still taking place at the IeSF
on the best measures for regulating suspicious activities.
However, he echoes Johnson’s opinion that working with
the gambling industry is vital for protecting the integrity
of E-sports, but “it will be the priority thing to investigate
who will be the proper partner for this”.
On the position of Lim at VGambling, Johnson stated:
“It is conceivable some might see this as a conflict as
that might suit their purposes to do so. However, as
VGambling has no current relationship with the IeSF we
do not see this as a conflict at all. Mr Lim is an outside
It is clear that in tandem with its
phenomenal growth, there are questions
of integrity surrounding E-sports
perspective. This is something that E-sports will, at
some point soon, need to address. Betfair has rigorous
checks and processes in place to prevent children and
young people from gambling. This includes electronic
checks after registration in order to verify age, address
and identity. If these initial checks prove inconclusive,
registrants are then required to provide alternative proof
of identification and address.
Ethics in governance
Paul Buck, Founder of EPIC Problem Gambling
Consultancy, told ICSS Journal that there are already
60,000 known problem gamblers in the UK between
11-15 years old, but he believes the real figure is probably
much higher and will never be known. The number of
young people exhibiting problematic behaviour has risen
sharply due to online gaming, which is widely available
through apps such as Bejewelled and Candy Crush. These
games offer similar transactional emotions as gambling,
from lining up symbols to the ‘near miss’ sensation. There
is also the continual temptation to buy extra credits or
enhancements offering ‘rewards’ or ‘powers’.
E-sports have a relationship with popular games
played on PCs, X-boxes and Playstations across the globe.
These can have an instant attraction for young people,
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Jessica Rinaldi/Corbis
Integrity
A player dressed in costume concentrates on a computer game at the
PAX East gaming conference in Boston. The growing risk of betting
fraud and match-fixing in E-sports is also putting young people at risk
Director whom we feel is one of the top experts in the
field of E-sports and brings a wealth of knowledge that
helps us better understand the nuances of the cyber
athlete and their fan base. We would never ask him for
any information that would put him in a conflict with his
position at the IeSF as clearly it would not be in our best
interest to ever jeopardise that relationship.”
Lim confirmed this, telling the ICSS Journal in an
e-mail: “For my position at VGambling, this is nothing
to do with IeSF since there is no connection or any
information sharing between these two parties. As one of
the [experts] in sports marketing business and E-sports
field, I am just providing proper guidance so VGambling
can work in [the] E-sports [field] in proper and legal
manner as ‘outside non-executive director’.”
Valve prohibits professional players, as well as
team managers and anyone involved with setting up an
event, from betting on matches. It also advises players
to hold themselves to a high standard of integrity and not
associate with bettors or pass on any inside information.
However, these are only “recommendations” and it is not
clear how it can be enforced or monitored.
As with many sports, betting is becoming ever more
closely associated with E-sports and, as an industry, it will
need to consider how this relationship can grow in such a
way that allows for investment, but does not damage its
integrity and image. Traditional sports have had to evolve
their rules on betting and oversight of issues related to it,
and E-sports will need to do the same if it is to continue
its huge surge forward and the level of success to date.
It is clear that in tandem with its phenomenal growth,
there are questions of integrity surrounding the E-sports
industry. In some instances this has already been linked
directly to betting fraud and the symptomatic matchfixing that occurs. While game developers and tournament
organisers are now more aware of the risks associated
with betting, no single organisation currently regulates or
protects the industry from betting fraud or match-fixing.
Having said this, the relative immaturity of E-sports
also provides the unique opportunity to explore better
ways to manage the areas of betting, match-fixing and
corruption. And it is also clear that these issues are on
the radar of those who want to see the sport progress
successfully in a clean way, from players and developers
to licensed betting operators. Johnson comments that “to
be sure the match-fixing by pro players should be under
their [IeSF] regulatory oversight, as for betting the IeSF
could always model themselves after the major league
sporting organisations NFL, MLB, where betting by players
on league games is illegal and VGambling would be
supportive of such a move.”
All quotes attributed to Chul Woong (Alex) Lim are his
personal opinions and do not represent the views of the
International e-Sports Federation
Jake Marsh is the Head of Training and Youth Protection
at the International Centre for Sport Security
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Integrity
Cycling report highlights
governance issues
The Cycling Independent Reform Commission’s (CIRC) report into doping in
cycling was published in February, and much of the subsequent comment has
focused on the implications for cycling itself. Here, Chris Aaron discusses
the aspects that have wider relevance for sport
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he Cycling Independent Reform Commission
(CIRC) was established by the Union Cycliste
Internationale (UCI) in order “to conduct a
wide ranging independent investigation into
the causes of the pattern of doping that developed
within cycling and allegations which implicate the
UCI and other governing bodies and officials over
ineffective investigation of such doping practices.”
Its commission, by the new UCI President Brian
Cookson, was a clear signal of his determination
to change the culture within cycling: not just with
regard to doping, but also concerning governance.
The establishment of CIRC and its approach is, in
itself, something from which other sports federations
might learn, though we will not discuss the details
of that here. Suffice to say that such regular reports,
conducted by independent bodies once every four or
five years, might be an interesting feature of improved
sports governance. While the $3 million cost of this
investigation is significant, it is minor compared with
the sponsorship and broadcasting revenues at stake.
The findings, with regard to specific incidents
and people, were at once measured and damning.
CIRC found no evidence of corruption in the specific
events it considered, but it did establish a pattern
of arbitrary enforcement of the UCI’s own rules and
preferential treatment of some athletes; behaviours
that CIRC attributed to a desire to protect the image
and commercial success of the sport, but that allowed
a culture of doping to persist.
With regard to rule enforcement, the commission
states: “One area where UCI consistently failed in the
past to apply its own anti-doping rules properly was
Therapeutic Use Exemptions. Two clear examples of
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Graham Chadwick/Getty
or training in certain places... Some of the high-profile
scandals suggested that clustering occurred to facilitate
doping programmes.” While the report acknowledges
that there may be various other reasons for riders to live
in similar regions, such as beneficial tax arrangements or
favourable training environments, this kind of behaviour
should at least be considered a point of concern.
Sponsorship
Laurent Brochard was identified in the CIRC report
as having been permitted to provide backdated
prescriptions in 1997. In this case, says the report,
the UCI failed to apply its own anti-doping rules
this were the cases of Laurent Brochard (1997) and Lance
Armstrong (1999), when both riders were permitted to
provide backdated prescriptions to avoid sanction. Another
example... was the decision to allow Lance Armstrong to
compete in the Tour Down Under in 2009, despite the
fact that he had not been in the UCI testing pool for the
prescribed period of time.”
On preferential treatment, CIRC says: “UCI saw
Lance Armstrong as the perfect choice to lead the sport’s
renaissance after the Festina scandal: the fact that he
was American opened up a new continent for the sport,
he had beaten cancer and the media quickly made him
a global star. Numerous examples have been identified
should not be considered only as a sweep of the UCI’s
stables, but a reminder of the structural weaknesses that
give rise to the kind of problems that have mired cycling.
We will return to questions of governance later on, but
first it is worth reviewing the factors that CIRC identifies as
contributing to the continued practice of doping in cycling.
It soon becomes apparent that many of these factors can
be seen in other sports.
The report states that “doping can continue ‘out of sight’
because many teams’ riders spend large periods of time
apart from their team or colleagues... They have their own
people and rely on them for most of
their requirements.” It seems obvious
that such isolation from a team, and
from managerial oversight, makes it
much harder to control an athlete’s
behaviour, protect them from malign
influences, and give them guidance
on integrity issues such as doping or
match-fixing. The commission also
describes that: “Some teams today
have tried to change this approach
by creating a team environment in
which riders are expected to train with the team, use
team staff and doctors rather than their own.”
The CIRC’s findings should be
considered a reminder of the structural
weaknesses that give rise to the kind
of problems that have mired cycling
showing that UCI leadership ‘defended’ or ‘protected’
Lance Armstrong and took decisions because they
were favourable to him.”
Are such behaviours plausible in other sports codes
and federations? Given the governance structures of
various federations, as well as the value of individual
superstars, they most certainly are. The CIRC’s findings
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The report cites numerous examples
where the UCI leadership protected
global cycling star Lance Armstrong
Structure of teams
Structure of the sport
The commission observed that various interviewees
said the points system in cycling causes “riders to be
more likely to risk doping towards the end of the season...
Steve Ruark/PA Images
to achieve better placing in order to acquire extra points
to help with contract negotiations.” With regard to matchfixing, the structure of rewards in competitions and
leagues can have a significant impact on the incentive to
manipulate matches, and there are clear parallels with the
temptation to dope in cycling. It was also argued by some
interviewees that the race calendar is too busy, and that
the three Grand Tours: the Giro, the Tour and the Vuelta,
are too close in the calendar.
The commission took the view that the “race calendar
and the point system have a negligible impact on doping”,
but certainly with regard to the points system it would be
interesting to see some more research on its impact on
the temptation to cheat.
Clustering
The findings discuss a phenomenon that began in the
1990s, which saw many riders “clustering” in certain
locations. The CIRC notes that: “the riders may not all
be from the same team, but they gravitate to living and/
There is an argument that sponsorship can have a positive
impact on sports integrity, particularly when the sponsor
takes a close interest in the sport as well as the team it is
supporting. However, this does not always seem to have
been the case in cycling.
The CIRC findings state that the commission “was
frequently told that cycling has always been too dependent
on income from sponsorship… It put pressure on teams to
encourage doping to ensure that the team obtained results
to keep the sponsor happy, and, secondly, in some cases
the short-term nature of a sponsorship deal might result
in short-term contracts for riders... which put them under
a separate pressure to dope.”
CIRC spoke with a number of sponsors that were
involved with cycling, and found that their knowledge of
team or individual doping varied, but “appears to have...
evolved over time. Prior to the high-profile scandals and
investigations in the 2000s, it appears that some sponsors
either had knowledge of the doping practices or took a
‘turn a blind eye’ approach. However, by the mid/late
2000s sponsors viewed the risk differently and started
to look at alternative sports as a safer and more reliable
investment, despite the significant potential returns on
investment in cycling.”
The report recounts the experience of one sponsor
that did work closely with the team’s management in
order to exclude doping and avoid riders that might be
prone. However, “it realised that it was unsuccessful and
that its sponsorship was in any event tarnished by other
teams’ doping scandals”, says the report. While men’s
road cycling was an ideal fit for the sponsor’s marketing
purposes, the company withdrew.
One of the most depressing observations made by
the commission for this author, who has perhaps naively
enjoyed the romanticism of heroic breakaways, was that
some of the so-called “suicide breaks” are in fact made
for exposure. Riders are able to gain media attention for
their sponsor, even just for a short period, during a race
stage. While the peloton knows it will eventually fail, they
ignore this and use the breakaway to achieve maximum
TV coverage: so much for sporting values.
Broadcasting rights
The sale of broadcast rights is another major source of
finance for the sport, the revenues of which go to the UCI
and event organisers, such as ASO. The report points to
the fact that “German television broadcasters announced
in 2012 they would no longer broadcast the Tour live
because there was insufficient public demand”, arguing
this shows that “doping scandals not only impact team
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sponsors, but can also affect the appeal of the sport more
broadly, and therefore the ability to monetise it”. Given the
amount of money spent on broadcasting rights for some
sports, it is surprising that more research is not available
on how broadcasters could influence the integrity and
governance of sports bodies.
Investment in testing
The commission spoke to a number of scientists, including
some working on the research and development of new
anti-doping tests. In their opinion, the science behind the
physical tests is robust; however, there still needs to be a
greater understanding of the Athlete Biological Passport
(ABP). It is clear that new doping products will become
available with time, and riders too can adapt their doping
techniques. Micro-dosing is still highly difficult to detect,
which indicates there is still a need to continually develop
different methods, requiring investment.
According to the report, “a recurring theme within the
sport was that doping and cheating were perpetuated
in the sport because of the transfer of knowledge across
teams [through] the movement of riders and staff (from
soigneurs [team assistants], to doctors or managers)”.
People do not talk about doping openly anymore, so
nowadays, “the return to the sport of riders who doped
in the past and take up roles as directeur sportif or
trainers” appears to be a greater problem.
Role of doctors
It is clear from the cases outlined in the report that
doping activities display a classic network structure,
with some nodes being more important than others.
In cycling, doctors turn out to be one of the crucial
connections, with all the networks that have been
uncovered having “access to doctors with extensive
knowledge of doping in the sport, particularly doctors
Australian cyclist Cadel Evans, who is known as a clean face
in cycling, arrives at an anti-doping centre during the 2011
Tour de France. The CIRC report calls for greater collaboration
between anti-doping entities and law enforcement agencies
The commission argues that the criminalisation
of doping per se is not necessary, but that anti-doping
organisations should establish close relationships with the
police and other authorities, such as customs and border
control, in order to benefit from their greater investigative
powers. The commission emphasises
that both “law enforcement and antidoping organisations must be able
to share relevant information”,
which is also a particular concern
for those involved in combating
the issue of match-fixing.
These problems are not limited to
cycling, but are of far greater concern
‘specialised’ in doping who seek to improve doping
methods to provide greater performance benefits.”
Investigation and information sharing
There is also the observation that, “whilst the WADA Code
has brought a level of consistency to sports governing
bodies’ rules on anti-doping, there is no consistency in
the approach to the use of public authority investigative
powers in the field of anti-doping. The significance of
respective investigative powers is evidenced by the fact
that riders commented that they are far more scared
of criminal investigations than doping controls, as it is
much easier to adapt to the latter.”
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Laurent Rebours/PA Images
Returning riders
Power of media
Finally, the CIRC draws attention to the importance of the
media in uncovering cases of doping or cheating, noting the
manner in which the UCI attempted to control the media
in order to limit reports on doping. This comes down to
the issue of transparency and good governance, and the
need for regular, independent reports on such issues.
Transparency and governance
Governance lies at the heart of these issues. The report
pulls no punches in its criticism of the UCI’s management,
stating: “From the late 1980s, UCI grew rapidly as an
institution. It vested extensive powers in the office of
president, which created an entity run in an autocratic
manner without appropriate checks and balances.
Internal management bodies appear to have been devoid
of any real influence and the governance structure was
such that if the president wanted to take a particular
direction, he was able to do so almost unchallenged.”
The report continues: “This authoritarian management
perhaps facilitated the rapid growth of the organisation
but in the CIRC’s view it also led to serious problems
of governance and deficiencies in internal control
processes, in particular with regard to the direction and
implementation of anti-doping policy as well as to the
use of resources. By way of example, Hein Verbruggen,
with the agreement of the majority of his colleagues on
the Management Committee, chose his successor and
found the means to ensure his election.”
It also notes that these problems are not limited to
cycling, but are of far greater concern: “Current events
demonstrate that problems of governance are not unusual
in the domain of sporting organisations. In addition to
reviewing the organisations themselves, questions should
also be asked of the public authorities which often, in one
form or another, support the activities of these federations,
in particular by means of tax exemptions. Sponsors also
have a responsibility and could play a more significant
role in the governance of sporting organisations.”
The end result of these weaknesses in governance
was that, in the words of the report, “for a long time, the
main focus of UCI leadership was on the growth of the
sport worldwide and its priority was to protect the sport’s
reputation; doping was perceived as a threat to this.
The... review of UCI’s anti-doping programme reveal[s]
that decisions taken by UCI leadership in the past have
undermined anti-doping efforts: examples range from
adopting an attitude that prioritised a clean image and
sought to contain the doping problem, to disregarding
the rules and giving preferential status to high profile
athletes, to publicly criticising whistleblowers and
engaging in personal disputes with other stakeholders.”
The CIRC concludes by noting the inconsistencies of
the body’s approach: “The emphasis of UCI’s anti-doping
policy was primarily, therefore, to give the impression
that UCI was tough on doping rather than actually being
good at anti-doping. UCI portrayed itself as always being
at the forefront of the fight against doping. However, there
was more that could have been done to address the roots
of the doping problem or to discuss strategies against
doping proactively. Such an active policy was seen as
an impediment to the development of cycling and was,
therefore, not encouraged.”
Chris Aaron is the Editor of the ICSS Journal
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Technology
Technology
Wearable security
Tracey Caldwell examines how wearable technology is being used across
the sport sector, from supporting security to monitoring athletes and enhancing
spectators’ experiences, exploring the direct and indirect impacts, as well as
the issues that will confront security managers as these technologies proliferate
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his year looks set to be the year of wearable
technology – and the signs are that sports
events will be among the early adopters,
particularly in order to support safety and
security. Wearable technology already developed
for staff to use on the frontline includes bodyworn
cameras, smartglasses and body sensors, which
are built into belts, vests or other gear.
In December 2014, analyst company Forrester
Research released a report stating that wearable
technology will take off as “brands, retailers, sports
stadiums, healthcare companies, and others develop
new business models to take advantage of wearables”.
It expects to see wearables that monitor the safety of
field workers, location-aware smartwatches helping
managers assign staff in real time and video and photo
devices that augment the insights of security staff.
“Wearable technology is at the point now where it
is reasonable for a wearable environment to occur cost
effectively and with the right accuracy and capability,”
says Paul Steinberg, Chief Technology Officer at
Motorola Solutions, which is increasingly focused on
wearables. He adds, “right now it is law enforcement
and police [who are using wearable tech], but it is not
a difficult stretch to see how this would be leveraged
in other areas, including stadium security, where there
are lots of potential wearables and lots of appropriate
ways to communicate with them.
“We are increasingly going to see the ability for
stadium security to communicate with their staff in a
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Staff monitor footage and data in the MetLife Stadium
command centre. The stadium has been working with
software developers CrowdOptic to improve security
© 2015 BetaTrac.
Mel Evans/Alamy
Betatrac developed a lightweight jacket for security
staff that incorporates tracking and recording
devices. Wearables can help prevent situations
from escalating and provide evidence if they do
more flexible way than only spoken word and handheld
audio – a headworn display would be a very logical thing,
the ability to collect their location precisely and accurately
would be very useful at a stadium.”
Preventing and protecting
Wearables have two basic purposes, according to
Steinberg. One is to collect data, such as biometrics,
the status of a police officer or firefighter’s weaponry, or
about the surrounding environment. The other purpose
is to convey information to the wearer – which could be
through a variety of user interfaces, from vibration-based,
to a headworn display or via an earpiece.
Steinberg says: “We are a little way from this, but
it is certainly going to happen – a person can be walking
and capturing video images and be communicating in real
time to the location that can be processing the imagery
and doing facial recognition or looking for patterns in
crowd behaviours. Again, the security personnel can be
essentially collecting data while analytics calculate what
is going on.”
Wearables have a key part to play in preventing
incidents that can compromise safety and security.
David Boswell, Director of Definitive Event Policing (DEP),
explains “wearables are hugely important for the safety
of our officers at DEP and for keeping the public safe
at festivals, outdoor events and sporting events, too.
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Bodycams are an excellent example. By recording an
incident as and when it happens, we can protect officers
from false allegations made against them when dealing
with a difficult situation. It acts as a deterrent and has a
positive impact on general public safety.”
He adds, “our experience is that wearing a bodycam
can in itself help an incident from escalating in the first
place. People are very aware they are being recorded.
The camera is very visible and not hidden in any way,
and people often adjust their behaviour in response.
It is commonly known that people who may be intent
on causing disruption are likely to behave differently
if they are aware that their behaviour and actions are
being recorded.” They will know the likelihood of their
identity being discovered, and of a successful prosecution,
would be higher than if security or law enforcement
personnel did not use such equipment, adds Boswell.
“It’s a very important tool.”
Stadia are usually monitored with fixed cameras,
relaying video data to a control room, while security
guards use radios, or similar items, to communicate.
However, bodyworn cameras are increasingly offering
an incremental layer of security. In anticipation of the
2014 World Cup, South Africa-based Betatrac Telematic
Solutions conducted a trial with a private security firm
and the Brazilian police of its jacket-based cameras.
Betatrac’s products include a lightweight jacket that has
real-time geo-visual technologies, with GPS tracking, a
camera for still images and video, and audio recording,
which can be controlled automatically or on demand.
All images are relayed in real time to a control room
to help staff with a range of actions, such as identifying
and tracking known troublemakers. With the location of
each guard recorded, security staff can be sent to keep
an eye on troublemakers near them, take images during
incidents in real time and store data that can be used for
any legal proceedings.
software incorporated into Google Glass in SWAT training
exercises, such as Urban Shield. In this case, the team
members wearing Google Glass with CrowdOptic software
were able to broadcast their location and video feed in
real time to the command centre, allowing the head of
the operation to view officers in the field dynamically.
Kovach also argues the ability to transmit video
outputs from smartglasses to a command centre in real
time will benefit stadium security, with staff able to share
images from their smartglasses with other officers on
the ground that are also wearing
them. He says, “we believe bodyworn
cameras will be supplemented and
then replaced by smartglasses.
Bodyworn cameras provide an
effective way to provide the view of
the general direction of an officer.
Smartglasses will be the only way
to provide information on what the
officer was actually looking at and
what was seen. This latter quality is necessary to capture
the best evidentiary footage as well as to best answer
questions about altercations that arise.”
“By recording an incident as and when
it happens, we can protect officers”
– David Boswell, Director, Definitive Event Policing
CrowdOptic has been working with security at the
MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, United States. James
Kovach, Vice President of Business Development, explains
that the technology captures ‘focal data’ (GPS, compass,
and accelerometer data) from multiple sources, including
smartphones, photo and video metadata and augmented
reality glasses. It then ‘clusters’ photos, videos and
social commentary into related content that is focused
on a specific area. As yet, the MetLife implementation is
smartphone focused, but CrowdOptic has also deployed
Moving from consumer to security markets
Consumer wearable technology, from Fitbit to GoPro, is
driving both interest in wearables for stadium security and
consumer acceptance of the devices being used by staff.
However, security operations have challenges to address
that are not met by consumer solutions. “Wearable
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Marcio Jose Sanchez/PA Images
Motorola Solutions Venture
Capital Group invested in Recon
Instruments, which develops
data display technology for
sports that is set inside glasses
In addition to his day job at Motorola, Steinberg also
runs Motorola Solutions Venture Capital Group, looking
for promising early advances in target technologies. Recon
is one company it invested in. “We have done some work
with Recon Instruments that has a different configuration
of display technology [than Google Glass] that looks to
be a closer match to the needs of security professionals.”
The headworn glasses-style display was inspired by
Recon’s Chief Executive Officer, who was looking for a
way to communicate statistical information about his
performance while he was swimming.
In this case, the display is situated out of the line of
sight, below the wearer’s vision, and is designed to be
activated with eye movement. “If you are not looking at
it, it does not illuminate, so it is less distracting,” says
Steinberg. “All these things are driven by the need to
be hands free. The term we like to use is ‘information
snacking’. The way they [security guards] interact with
the display is not like watching a movie or a video, it
is typically something they can pick up at a glance.”
Communication issues
Apple’s CEO Tim Cook introduces the
iWatch in September. While smartwatches
have functions that security staff find useful,
they are vulnerable during confrontation
products have gained a lot of traction in the consumer
space. Law enforcement saw this as a really good fit for
them to be able to leverage similar technology and be
able to deploy them on officers,” says Erick Ceresato,
Product Marketing Manager at Genetec, a company
specialising in physical security software
Genetec supplies security solutions to many leading
sports stadia, including Craven Cottage, home of Fulham
Football Club; the MetLife Stadium, residence of the New
York Giants, and New York Jets, and site of the 2014 Super
Bowl; and the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the base of
the New Orleans Saints. Genetec partners with providers
of bodyworn cameras and other wearables that are used
by security personnel and law enforcement. Their software
manages and monitors surveillance cameras, as well as
controlling cameras and intercom stations.
“Traditionally, Genetec supplies the management
software to control the fixed CCTV cameras at venues.
In the past year to two years we have seen a large amount
of interest, primarily from law enforcement agencies,
in deploying body wearable cameras,” says Ceresato.
He adds, “more and more customers are beginning to
evaluate different cameras. From our perspective, because
we integrated these bodyworn cameras and we already
manage these surveillance systems at the stadiums, it
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©Recon Instruments 2015
allows the customers to record data from body wearable
cameras onto the same database where they store their
video recordings. When they want to review the incidents,
they don’t have to use a separate piece of software.”
Many stadia already have a large number of CCTVs
in place, supported by a management system. Ceresato
points out that piloting video feeds from wearables would
generally be incremental to the current investment: “The
cost of [bodyworn] cameras themselves is generally priced
$800-$1,500 per camera, then we license the software per
channel – so each camera added to the system would be
an incremental camera licence.”
While Ceresato has seen a lot of interest around
Google Glass, he believes this is not translating into
implementation and, in his experience, there continues to
be more interest in bodyworn cameras than in some of the
newer wearables: “I think the cost is the main driver. Form
factor is another issue. [Security guards] would look for
something that could be attached to their uniforms with
high-performance Velcro to attach to their SWAT vests.”
DEP’s Boswell also casts doubt on the suitability
of Google Glass-based security solutions: “There’s no
doubt that smartglasses and smartwatches will have the
capability to be used in security, but I have a big question
mark over whether they will ever be suitable. Glasses
can be taken off or removed, they can become unstable
in confrontation, and they can easily be broken. They
simply aren’t suitable for what we need them for.
“The same problems affect watches – the wrist is
the worst possible place for that kind of device when
you are dealing with confrontation. But what I can see
smartwatches could be useful for, in [the] future, is digital
or audio note taking. For an officer to be able to file notes
on site, saving precious time, would be an advantage. But
again, the design is crucial – durability is paramount.”
Steinberg highlights a major challenge for products
originally developed for the consumer market that make
the transition to stadium security – the ‘hub and spoke
paradigm’, where most wearable devices work by linking
to a smartphone. First responders need a reliable network
connection, whether via broadband, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth,
so that all the data from the wearables may be reliably
collected at a single point from where security managers
can make higher level decisions. “Typically, there are
multiple networks available. There might be Wi-Fi in
the stadium, a wide area network or there could be a
purpose-built data network; so we built into our devices
the ability to connect to multiple networks at the same
time, making the decision based on what they are trying
to communicate to the service required as to which
network to use,” says Steinberg.
Many types of wearables can record and convey a
large amount of data. “It is true that we can collect
more information than we can actually transmit in real
time. If tens or hundreds of security personnel were all
providing video [feeds] across a
wireless network, it would be very
challenging. In our rules engine, we
make decisions about what we want
to store locally and what we might
use for post-incident analysis or
training versus what really has to
be sent over the network,” he says.
In Steinberg’s view, the ability to collect a lot of data
from security personnel and press it into workflows is
mature. “What’s evolving is increasingly this data will be
video or image-based and the analytics for extracting
intelligence and information from video are still evolving.”
He describes a typical case: “Perhaps an agency wants
to trigger an action to bond biometric status and weapon
status for a police officer. That might mean that elevated
heart rate or blood pressure coincident with deployment
There continues to be more interest in
bodyworn cameras than other wearables
At Motorola Solutions, Steinberg points out that a
headworn display can communicate lots of things – the
status of weapons or equipment, how many rounds are
in the magazine, or an image of an individual of interest.
However, he believes: “Consumer tech is generally
designed for everyone and no-one in particular. We are
finding with our human factors research that Google
Glass is not exactly the most appropriate way for a police
officer or security people to interact with the technology.”
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Technology
Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Tribune Content Agency LLC/Alamy
Technology
Paul Steinberg, Chief Technology Officer at
Motorola Solutions, holding one of the company’s
first innovations, the two-way police radio. Motorola
is now focusing on developing wearable technology
of a firearm would be cause for flagging up an event
that required action. One action could be to switch the
communication mode from audio to something that would
less obtrusive so that the officer would not be disturbed
and would not give his position away. Or there might be
an action to connect to command and control in the back
office to alert them to an unusual situation. We are trying
to bring these capabilities together, to sense disparate
pieces of data and use that to decode the best way to now
communicate with this first responder,” says Steinberg.
Checklight headwear monitors the force of blows.
Wearable technology has a wide range of uses for
athletes, from monitoring performance to ensuring safety
pictures of the same thing as calculated by our proprietary
triangulation algorithms) in a few seconds.”
While security suppliers are reporting interest from
stadia in deploying wearables, there are still a number of
issues to overcome. Data protection and cost are the key
barriers, according to Boswell. “The
public, in my experience, backs the
use of such equipment but it is the
management, storage and disposal
of data that concerns them. Failing
to manage recorded data correctly
could lead to confidential data being
accessed by others – and that’s a
serious breach. Such a breach has
huge implications for everyone, from
the public to the company itself.
There are large fines in store once
future EU data regulation comes
into force on this issue and obviously potential damage
to reputation too. Another significant barrier is the cost of
new equipment and technology. Body cameras are very
expensive – out of reach for many companies involved in
security and event policing.”
Wearables are also under development that will
boost the safety of athletes. In August 2014, technology
news site Computer Weekly reported that electronics
developer mc10 and sports giant Reebok created
While security suppliers are reporting
interest from stadia in deploying
wearables, there are still a number
issues to overcome
Kovach too believes that implementing wearables
alone is not sufficient. “Rather, the video feeds and
data that result must be actionable – i.e. the key part is
having the ability on the back end to immediately analyse
and create alerts based on these feeds.” The back-end
technology exists, in his view: “In fact, our technology
analysed the clusters of pictures taken in and around
the Boston Marathon bombings and curated all of the
locations and clusters (incidents of individuals taking
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Checklight – headgear that fits under the helmets of
athletes and alerts coaches if an impact of significant
force happens by flashing red or yellow. It is being used
by NFL players. Wearable technology can also track
the movements of sportspeople using GPS, particularly
useful in geographically dispersed endurance events. If
sportspeople also carry microchips built into their kit,
referee judgements, such as offside calls, will become
more accurate, supporting crowd management.
Creating a security ecosystem
Fans have adopted wearable technology with enthusiasm
and vendors are busy building apps. One example comes
from software company APX Labs, which built a platform
to provide instant stats and replays via Google Glass. In
the future, wearable tech worn by athletes and fans might
feasibly contribute data to a security ecosystem. Genetec’s
Ceresato says: “This raises the question of crowdsourcing
video from sources outside the security system. Right now
there is some interest in that, although the technology is
not necessarily all the way there to bring it in and include
it inside the core security system.”
Steinberg believes that crowdsourcing video feeds is
technically possible, but will face bandwidth issues: “The
tricky part is how you assemble and put all that together.
We are doing some work that allows a 3D rendition of
something from multiple video feeds that are fed to it
from different vantage points. The more vantage points
there are, the more you can construct and the software is
getting intelligent enough to weave these things together.
Ten to 20 years ago, voice was a heavy load to carry
digitally. Now voice is almost insignificant in terms of
network traffic and video is the big thing, but there will
be a day when video is not much of a load and can be
passed around much like voice today.”
Despite the challenges, Steinberg and his team
are focusing most of their attention on human factors:
“The more stress people are under, the less cognition you
have to devote to mundane tasks and the more you are
focused on saving a life or whatever the case may be.
This is why we think wearables are so important, because
they give us so many different ways to collect data and
interact with people to alleviate the cognitive load on
them and let the technology do useful things for them.”
Boswell also cautions: “It’s important not to forget
that technology alone is not enough. Human interaction,
strategic planning and good old-fashioned people skills
are just as important on the ground – and that’s why our
officers undergo intense training in crowd management.
Having a bodycam on board helps, but the quality of the
officer wearing it is even more important.”
Tracey Caldwell is a business technology journalist who
writes regularly about security issues in communications
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Legacy
Legacy
Measuring the
reputational legacy
from Brazil 2014
Jonathon Edwards and Terri Byers discuss their approach to assessing
the reputational legacy left from major sporting events, focusing on how the
media reacted to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil
T
he 2014 World Cup was intended to renew
Brazil’s reputation from the moment that
FIFA awarded the event to the country in
October 2007. A primary reason that Brazil
bid for the World Cup was that the event would boost
both economic activity and the country’s international
reputation, moving the perception of Brazil away from
that of a developing country.
“[The 2014 World Cup] is about legacy... it really
is a new Rio, a paradigm shift, we are not going to let
this opportunity go by,” said Brazil’s Sport and Leisure
Secretary, Marcia Lin, at a Soccerex industry convention
in Rio de Janerio in 2011.
corporate investment and industry, one might imagine
that they would include an attempt to monitor, manage
or track the impact the MSE has on the country or city’s
reputation in their legacy plans, but this is rarely the case.
Within the business sector, David Deephouse
and Mark Suchman have defined reputation as the
“generalized expectation about a firm’s future behaviour
or performance based on collective perceptions (either
direct or, more often, vicarious) of past behaviour or
performance”, in their essay Legitimacy in Organizational
Institutionalism. It can also be associated with the
company’s brand, and even applied to a city or country.
While most people do not think the term ‘brand’ applies to
such entities, valuation consultancy
Brand Finance estimated the 2012
Olympics contributed in raising the
United Kingdom to the fourth most
‘valuable’ country in the world from
a brand perspective. The importance
can be seen in the ‘GREAT Britain’
and ‘Team GB’ logos, both of which
were prominent during the London Olympics.
According to Donald Lange, Peggy M Lee, and Ye Dai
in Organizational Reputation: A Review in the Journal of
Management, the signals of reputation consist of ‘being
known’, ‘being known for something’, and ‘generalised
favourability’. Leaders, advocates for hosting an MSE
and event managers consciously, and indirectly, work
with these signals to shape and build a positive brand
image, and the brand loyalty of consumers and investors.
Also using these as a basis for measurement, we can
attempted to evaluate the reputation of the 2014 World
Cup in Brazil as it was communicated and represented
throughout the media.
In the Journal of Management, Deephouse argued that
media reputation is “defined as the overall evaluation of
Legacy plans, now a requirement of most governing
bodies that hold major sporting events (MSEs), primarily
deal with the economic and social benefits that it is
hoped will ‘endure’ following the hosting of an MSE.
Such benefits may include urban regeneration, better
transport infrastructure, increased participation in sport
and greater social cohesion, among others.
Controlling perceptions
However, in addition to these tangible benefits, there is
also a rather less tangible form of legacy that governments
often fail to manage proactively: namely, ‘reputation’.
Since governments and cities engage in MSEs largely
to raise their visibility on the international stage and
promote themselves as a destination for tourism,
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iStock Images, Speedix/Alamy
There is a less tangible legacy that
governments fail to manage: reputation
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Legacy
Legacy
a firm [or in the case of this study, a country] presented
in the media”. The media can be influential in shaping
opinions and public knowledge about a company, city
or country, and can gain valuable information from
individuals that have first-hand knowledge of a particular
situation. Thus, the media can be used as a tool to provide
signals about a particular situation, that can ultimately
be influential on the public’s opinion and knowledge.
Furthermore, as Zhongdang Pan and Gerald Kosicki state
in Framing Analysis: An Approach to News Discourse:
“The domain in which the news discourse operates
consists of shared beliefs about a society. These beliefs,
despite the elusive nature of their content, are known to
and accepted by a majority of the society as common
sense or conventional wisdom (e.g., ‘Equal opportunities
are desirable’; ‘Opposing political candidates compete
to win’; ‘Truth means something real’ etc.).” Thus, there
is likely to be some correspondence between the ‘media
reputation’ of an event, host city or country, and how it
is perceived by the general public.
Media articles relating to the 2014 FIFA World Cup
in Brazil were gathered through internet databases ABI/
Inform (ProQuest) and LEXIS. Newspaper and magazine
articles were gathered together from The Globe and Mail,
The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles
Times, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian
Science Monitor, The Economist, Fast Company,
Financial Times, Maclean’s, Asia News Monitor,
New Statesman and U.S. News & World Report.
Charting the media response
The documents were organised by date: pre-event, from
1 October 2007 to 11 June 2014; during the event, 12
June 2014 to 13 July 2014; and post-event, 14 July 2014
and beyond, which were identified as frames. They were
chosen for comparison purposes in order to examine
the evolution of the media responses to the World Cup
event. The final collection included over 3,000 items of
print media: pre-event, more than 2,500 articles; during
the event, more than 400 articles; and post-event, more
than 300 articles. These articles were then downloaded
into Leximancer – computer software that assists in the
analysis process by identifying concepts and themes.
The data analysis consisted of a three-step process.
First, Leximancer coded the data for themes. These are
identified as quotes with particular groupings of words
consistently referenced within each of the articles. These
quotes were then coded. For example, the code of ‘de’
was used to designate quotes that discuss areas such as
Rio de Janeiro. The themes are then correlated with one
another through Leximancer in order to determine the
relationship between each other. Additionally, the number
Media coverage of Brazil 2014: prevalent concepts and themes
These tables show an analysis of articles relating to the Brazil World Cup. Key themes were identified by Leximancer text-mining
software, with frequently used themes then grouped into concepts. This table covers 1 October 2007 to 11 June 2014.
This table shows the themes and concepts used in articles during the event, running from 12 June to 13 July 2014. The results show
that the media focused on neutral issues relating to the game itself.
Before the event
Concepts
Government
World
Team
Themes
Times used
Examples
Government
Million
Market
Global
Public
Growth
President
Events
2,781
2,296
2,235
1,872
1,764
1,983
1,660
1,467
“Brazil is depending on an enormous amount of government
investment to build new ports, roads and power generators to
unleash future growth. And that isn’t to mention the stadiums
and airport upgrades it will need before hosting the 2014
World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games”
- Wall Street Journal
World
Tournament
National
During
International
Event
Top
Week
3,037
1,872
1,931
2,092
1,652
1,563
1,564
1,500
Team
Football
Game
Players
Fans
Win
Match
Final
Club
3,427
2,421
2,208
2,011
1,548
1,462
1,185
1,340
1,374
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Concepts
Themes
Times used
Examples
World Cup
World Cup
Brazil
Tournament
Soccer
Germany
Country
Final
Cup
Loss
Nation
3,290
3,266
1,145
1,161
809
895
589
412
383
354
“And it has become apparent in the past two weeks that the
World Cup, in its official incarnation, is for rich people. The
bulk of tickets were sold for between $90 and $990 – while
minimum wage in Brazil is $330 a month”
- The Globe and Mail
Brazilian
Brazilian
Fans
Match
National
Stadium
1,812
1,081
791
682
528
“The German team has won hearts and minds in Brazil –
YouTube videos showed players hanging out with locals and
enjoying the beaches near their Bahia base. One was even
soundtracked by a Brazilian pop hit. And its players all but
apologized for Tuesday’s blowout. “I consider the attitude of
your team very elegant,” Brazilian President Dilma
Rousseff told a German reporter at an informal gathering of
journalists on Friday in Brasília”
- The Washington Post
De
Brazilians
Football
De
RIO
During
JANEIRO
Games
City
1,049
782
764
733
474
443
399
398
“The experience of many Brazilians during the World Cup may
be somewhere between elation and despair. ‘’I’m watching it,
I’m following it,’’ said Roberto Santos, 28, a house painter in
Salvador. ‘’But I’m not happy because they bet all this money
on the stadiums, FIFA, etc., whereas other things need it and
aren’t getting it.’’
- The New York Times
“With a sense of shock, the world realised that Brazil is not
universally supportive of the tournament and there is a very
real prospect of chaos”
- New Statesman
“From the 1930s, football became the greatest symbol of
Brazilian identity, of how Brazilians saw themselves. With
football so closely associated with national identity, winning
the world cup became more than just about sporting success it was about success as a people”
- Mint
“In a sport where the ball rarely finds the goal and the events of
a millisecond can infect a nation for decades, the first question
that occupies fans isn’t how their tema can win, but which of
its weaknesses is most likely to prove fatal. The more you know
about the World Cup, the more pessimistic you become”
- Wall Street Journal
Table 1. Some of the other important themes not shown in this table include: ‘people’ (2,828), ‘home’ (2,035), ‘time’ (3,441), ‘best’
(2,023), ‘work’ (1,925), ‘local’ (1,972), ‘business’ (2,062) and ‘brand’ (1,566).
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During the event
Table 2. Some of the other important themes not included in this table are: ‘team’ (1,505), ‘ball’ (3,77), ‘Argentina’ (549), ‘host’
(429), ‘win’ (586), ‘play’ (548), ‘goals’ (461) and ‘players’ (616).
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Legacy
Legacy
Protesters in France demonstrate against the Brazilian World
Cup. Negative press about the event was evident worldwide,
which was influential in shaping public opinion and knowledge
Prevalent concepts and themes (continued)
The post-event frame extends from 14 July 2014 onward. The tone of the majority of articles were critical of the World Cup’s legacy.
Post-event articles
Concepts
Team
World Cup
Janeiro
Themes
Times used
Examples
Team
Soccer
Time
Players
Game
Tournament
Germany
Final
Home
Fans
Win
Games
Play
Match
Teams
Argentina
752
573
559
446
406
392
329
311
305
302
274
267
260
243
231
192
“For many, the estimated price tag to host the massive 12-city
event - reportedly around $12 billion - could never justify five
weeks of fun and games. There were at least eight deaths tied
to stadium construction, plus forced evictions, cost overruns
and nationwide protests. For many more, the legacy of the
tournament will be tied closely to what unfolded on the field
and the failings of the Brazilian national team”
- The Washington Post
World Cup
Brazil
Brazilian
Football
World
National
Country
JANEIRO
RIO
During
Brazilians
De
Including
Event
Host
1,238
1,262
802
387
368
343
448
414
408
328
312
284
246
232
198
“Civil liberties were sharply undermined by the government’s
response to the possibility of protests: The handful of
demonstrators who took to the streets as the tournament began
were pepper-sprayed, beaten and detained. Seventeen activists
were arrested on Saturday by police in Rio, in anticipation of
any sort of demonstration, and two minors detained”
- The Globe and Mail
“In a press release, the IOC said that preparations for the
Games had been boosted by “a successful winter in Brazil” that
included the FIFA World Cup, Rio 2016’s first test event. The
IOC said the schedule remained tight but “the Rio team clearly
demonstrated that they had the situation under control””
- BBC
Table 3. Some of the additional themes that are not shown in this table include: ‘government’ (258), ‘won’ (261), ‘economy’ (239)
and ‘people’ (422).
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A shift in focus
“After seven years of planning and 31 days of competition,
the most expensive soccer tournament in history is over.
And the dire predictions that street demonstrations, massive
transportation breakdowns and construction delays would
disrupt the event proved unfounded, with Brazil’s tournament
ranking among the most successful in World Cup history”
- LA Times
“At the same time, since our culture is also conservative, there
is also the possibility you will be discriminated against for
having that desire.” When 675,000 tourists, most of them men,
descended on the country for the World Cup, it seemed that
“sex with a Brazilian” was on the top of their to-do list. It was
an implicit message in much of the marketing around the Cup.
The sportswear company Adidas, for example, launched a
line of World Cup T-shirts that had slogans such as “Looking
to Score” and a soccer ball made to look like a woman’s
buttocks in a thong. The company was forced to withdraw
them after complaints.”
- The Globe and Mail
‘play’, ‘business’, ‘brand’ and ‘company’. During the
event, there was a decrease in the number of articles
that were being produced about the event and the
primary focus was on the teams, players and outcomes
of the matches. The post-event article analysis revealed
that ‘team’, ‘World Cup’, ‘Janeiro’, ‘year’, ‘won’, ‘growth’,
‘economy’, ‘government’, ‘people’ and ‘season’ were the
common concepts that emerged. So what does this all
mean? First, the general discussion that existed within
the media leading up to the start of the World Cup
covered mainly issues about stadium construction, riots,
transportation and the cost of the World Cup. In the
case of the pre-event media coverage, the media articles
focused on ‘being known’ in a negative aspect. Lange et al
explained that being known is the “generalized awareness
or visibility of the firm [or in the case of this study, Brazil];
prominence of the firm in the collective perception.”
Jacques Boutonnet/Newzulu/PA Images
of times the themes were referenced, we argue, is an
indication of the level of importance with regards to the
media. For example, the theme of ‘fans’ was referenced
1,081 times in articles written during the event; while in
the post-event articles, ‘Brazil’ was mentioned 1,262 times.
Themes are then grouped together to form concepts
and, similar to the themes, Leximancer is able to provide
the number of times the concepts were referenced, such
as ‘team’ (752) and ‘World Cup’ (1,238). Drawing on the
work of Dennis Gioia, Kevin Corely and Aimee Hamilton
in Organizational Research Methods, we understand a
concept to be “a more general, less well-specified notion
capturing qualities that describe or explain a phenomenon
of theoretical interest”, or a broader term encompassing
the themes. Some examples of the link between the two
categories could be seen in pre-event articles, where
the concept of ‘world’ is made up of ‘tournament’,
‘international’, ‘national’ and ‘event’, among others.
In the final step, these concepts are understood through
a reputational lens, which consisted of ‘being known’,
‘being known for something’ and ‘generalised
favourability’, in order to make sense of the findings.
As a result of the analysis, the following major
themes were identified from the pre-event articles
collected: ‘government’, ‘world’, ‘team’, ‘time’, ‘people’,
During the event, we found that there was a change in
the focus of the media coverage, where the discussion
centred around the event itself and some of the outcomes.
This relates to the concept of ‘being known for something’,
which is understood to be the focus on the product being
produced. There was a neutral discussion during this
time period. The final post-event discussion in the media
can be considered within the context of ‘generalised
favourability’. Lange et al suggest that this is when
the “perceivers assess the firm overall as more or less
good and attractive”. We found this to be the case postevent, where the media discussed issues relating to
Brazil’s calamitous loss to Germany, the current state of
the economy, and the sex trade that exists within Brazil.
The articles in this case had predominantly negative
connotations about the event. From a brand perspective,
it can be argued that enhancing its reputation and
establishing greater ‘brand loyalty’ has been a challenge
for Brazil, especially given its initial goal with regard to
hosting the World Cup was to achieve exactly that.
In conclusion, the preliminary findings show that
the media portrayal of the World Cup included negative
connotations pre and post event. During, there was
typically a neutral discussion focused on the product
being produced (such as ‘being known for something’).
In regards to ‘being known’, the media depicted the host
country as building extensive venues likely to become
white elephants. Leading up to the World Cup, the focus
was on the riots and illustrated a population frustrated
with the decisions of the government. Finally, in terms
of ‘generalised favourability’, the economic turmoil left
by the World Cup is a negative aspect that the media
brought to the fore.
What is apparent in this circumstance is that the
intended legacy of the 2014 World Cup was surrounded
with controversy to the point that, based on the signals,
the reputation gained is overall a negative one.
Dr Jonathon Edwards and Dr Terri Byers of University
of New Brunswick, Faculty of Kinesiology, Canada
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Legacy
The ICSS Sport Index:
Marseille Provence case study
Pierre Distinguin describes the role that Marseille has played as a
pilot study in the development of the ICSS Sport Index, which helps local
governments and civil associations evaluate the potential for sport to
assist in city and regional development
Marseille, France’s second largest city, is implementing a sports
development plan that is backed with a multi-million euro budget
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Claude Paris/AP/PA Images
A
lthough the competition between major cities
to attract foreign investment and new jobs
has never been so fierce, sport is a relatively
new thematic area for the strategies adopted
by most metropolitan and regional promotion agencies
in Europe. The experience of Provence Promotion, a
French economic development agency, in considering
the role of sport in its strategic development plans can
therefore be considered a useful example of how sport
can be integrated into similar strategies.
In 2013, during a visit to Doha to promote the city
as a prime location for future sports events, Provence
Promotion approached the ICSS to use Marseille as
a pilot study in the development of the ICSS Sport
Index. The ICSS Sport Index is an initiative that is
being created to assist cities to develop a sustainable
economic sector or industry around sport in a manner
that will create employment and also deliver socioeconomic benefits to local communities.
Marseille is the second biggest city in France, with
around one million inhabitants. It is renowned for its
cosmopolitan population, busy commercial port and
Mediterranean climate.
The city is investing in sport and health-related
sectors to increase its reputation as it is convinced that
sport can be a lever to advance its reputation, and drive
economic and social success.
The city has identified several long term strategic
objectives that guide its sports development policies:
■■ To use sport as a driver for social and
economic competitiveness.
■■ To be ranked among the most advanced sporting
cities in Europe.
■■ To be more attractive for visitors, talent,
entrepreneurs and start ups.
■■ To strike a healthy work-life balance.
■■ To address the needs of two important demographic
pillars: youth and senior citizens.
To pursue these goals, the city council has allocated
significant funding to its sports development strategy.
This aims to boost activities in the city by supporting
federation, club and facility development and promoting
physical activity among residents. The plans have
deeply considered the societal impact of sports, such
as teaching ethics, integration and social inclusion.
However, they seem to pay less attention to the
economic dimension of sport and its related economic
activities, while businesses and the private sector are
not included in the plans to any significant degree. In
addition, there is a lack of clearly defined organisational
structures that would strengthen the sustainability and
quality of the plan by connecting these sports assets
through well-defined collaborative mechanisms and
establishing links between public and private sectors.
Marseille is an A-rated area in many vertical
business fields, including life sciences, information
technology, optics, renewable technologies and
marine engineering, and it is growing fast in transversal
services, such as culture, tourism and sport. Because
of the large opportunities for cross fertilisation, the
city leadership believes that sport can be a new field of
experimentation for many industry leaders established
in the region. After pushing tourism 10 years ago
(Marseille was ranked as the first sea cruise city in
France in 2014), culture two years ago (Marseille was
European Capital of Culture in 2013), the city is now
embracing sport and well-being as a complementary
driver of the city’s attractiveness. It was voted to be
the European Capital of Sports in 2017.
Why partner with the ICSS?
While France will probably launch a bid for the next
Olympic Games in 2024, Marseille is currently preparing
the ground to be eligible for the candidacy along with
Paris, focusing on nautical activity. If successful, it might
be the best opportunity to definitively transform the
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97
Legacy
The scenario exercise
The first step in this collaborative effort commenced
with a scenario exercise, a creative forward-looking
brainstorming session that was animated by a mixed panel
of local, international and ICSS experts and stakeholders.
The exercise was hosted by the sport science faculty of
Aix-Marseille University. The purpose of this session was
to explore how various factors and key drivers of change
could influence the direction of sport development in the
long term, while taking into consideration the short-term
actions that could enhance the main pillars of the city’s
attractiveness and competitiveness with regard to sport.
The exercise brought together 40 key stakeholders from a
variety of institutions: sport managers, officials, politicians,
as well as economic business experts and academics from
Marseille and the region. Participants were divided into
four working groups to consider the different potential
drivers of change and explore how these factors might
Pillars of sport and
lifestyle attractiveness
Large European outdoor playground – sea and hills
Olympique de Marseille (OM) and Cercle des
Nageurs de Marseille (CNM) are world brands in
football and swimming
■■ Largest sport-related research and development, and
academic campus in France, with the launch of the
Technosport project at AMU in 2014
■■ Diversified economic clusters in marine engineering,
aeronautics, medical technology, IT and smart objects,
renewable energies and tourism
■■ Friendly environment within sport entrepreneurship
– Provence is home to the first connected sport
accelerator in France
■■
■■
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
lead to different outcomes for sport-related sectors over
the next seven years, predicated on the anticipated and
unexpected variants (scenario storylines).
Three broad scenarios were subsequently produced,
which were given appropriate labels: the passing game,
new formations and fantasy sports. The potential
outcomes are described below:
The passing game: steady growth of a sport sector in
Marseille around the existing nodes and sporting activities
of football, sailing activities and swimming. Olympique
de Marseille’s new Velodrome Stadium, which affords a
range of remote viewing possibilities, will be reinforced
as a centrepiece for sport in the city. In addition, there
will be new initiatives when Marseille is the European
Capital of Sports in 2017.
New formations: a more radical and imaginative
approach to sports, involving diversifying sectors and
the creation of new formations. This envisaged the launch
of a new and original sport and lifestyle cluster that will
position Marseille as a new European leader. The potential
players in this cluster are estimated at 500 members,
from small and medium enterprises to associations,
including private and public entities.
Fantasy sports: this scenario considered the impact
technological, business and social changes could bring to
the development of sport-related activities, with entirely
new forms of participation and viewing anticipated.
Because we want to build a bottom-up sport model
in Marseille, the three scenarios helped to identify who
might be the winners and losers in each of the three
different situations, based on events (such as winning
or losing bids for sporting events) as well as political
decisions. By contrast to existing models in Europe, we
will develop our own model to provide the best possible
compromise between what the market needs and the
potential offering to the public.
Having accomplished this step in the process, the
next stage was to carry out a detailed assessment of
sport stakeholders – in commercial, industrial, service
and activities sectors – to better map out the sportseconomic landscape, and to determine the opportunities
and desire for action. This step in the process was called
the ‘Sports Asset inventory’. Stakeholders from the
Chamber of Commerce and the City of Marseille first
identified over 500 economic and social sport contacts
in the area of Aix/Marseille. They distinguished between
pure sport and lifestyle participants (more than 150) and
indirect participants (partners, sponsors, associations
and users). The ICSS then generated a heat map of the
physical concentration (product space) of these sports
related assets, so we could get a physical picture of their
proximity to one another.
We embarked on the next stage, which was a pilot
stakeholder survey. This first survey exercise was carried
out with 50 participants in Marseille, taking about two
hours. The responses were consolidated and analysed
with the intention of collating data, as well as refining
the questionnaire, so it could be implemented online.
The survey tool is designed to be completed in about
Marseille’s Sport Development Plan
In December 2008, the city council
unanimously adopted the main thrust
of the sports policy, setting out a vision
and framework for developing sport as
a collective goal. The goal is backed
with a budget of €70 million per year for
sport and youth schemes. Other specific
groups, such as disabled or senior
citizens are also considered in the plan.
The city’s strategy is based on five
key objectives:
■■ address the demands of
organised sports;
■■ develop sport for all;
■■ reposition services, facilities and
infrastructure;
■■ create several sports and leisure
campuses in the south, north and
east of Marseille; and
■■ communicate on these subjects.
The aim is to create a climate
conducive for sharing that takes into
account not just the competitive and
performance-based aspects of taking
part in sport, but also sport’s societal
dimensions. This includes its educational
role (at school, in the neighbourhood,
in clubs), role in health (prevention,
healthy lifestyle), intergenerational role
(between instructors and participants),
integration (outside the traditional field of
resolving failed integration) and general
social role (learning about citizenship).
In order to achieve these goals, the
five key objectives guide the following
initiatives, which comprise Marseille’s
sport development plan.
The Sport for All Plan: the
objective of this initiative is to provide
access to sports for people across
all age groups (from the youngest to
senior citizens), professional levels,
as well as to different genders and
physical abilities. This will promote the
educational, intergenerational, health,
social and inclusive roles of sports.
The Federation Plan: the
support and development of clubs and
associations is an integral part of the
sport development policy. This will
include investment for the construction
or renovation of facilities and facilitysharing concepts, activation of
professionalism in clubs, promotion
of corresponding sports, developing
hosting offers for training camps, as well
as the opportunity for training classes.
The Integration of Sports
in Education: extra-curricular sports
activities are part of specific educational
projects. These are held during or
after school hours, within educational
venues or in social centres, municipal
facilities or sports clubs. This is to
promote civic values and behaviour
through sporting ethics, but also to
give children the chance to try sports.
Aix-Marseille University (AMU) has a
sports policy for students and staff. It
aims to use synergies with the AMU’s
sport stakeholders, but also considers
performance schemes for AMU students
who are top-level athletes and the
availability of disabled sport. AMU also
assisted Marseille’s application for the
European Capital of Sport in 2017.
Sport Facility Plan: this
ambitious investment programme for
sports facilities aims to renovate and
reconstruct existing facilities or bring
them up to certain standards, and build
new facilities. Three major types of venue
are considered: stadiums, gymnasiums
and swimming pools. The aim is to
enhance and balance the existing sport
offering by adapting facility features,
to support the development of certain
sport activities due to adequate facility
provision, to develop partnerships with
the commercial sector and to promote
Marseille’s sport sector to top athletes
(including foreign) and residents.
The Water Sports and
Underwater Diving Plan: this plan
is part of an innovative sea and coastline
policy that commands a budget of almost
€100 million for 2010-20. The specific
sports element of the plan is supported
with €20 million, of which €9 million is
earmarked for repairs and constructing
facilities. The remaining €11 million is
going towards major events, partnerships
with associations, federations and
clubs, and schemes to promote sailing,
swimming, diving and water sports
among schoolchildren, students and
the general public. The development
of water sports and diving tourism is
another major objective. By providing
a balanced offering of water sports
centres, as well as permanent areas
for event hosting and supplementary
services, Marseille plans to become
recognised for water sports.
A diving instructor coaching a girl in the Mediterranean
Sea, off the coast of Marseille. The city has allocated major
funding to develop watersports as part of a 10 year plan
Incamerastock/Alamy
image of the city, with the opportunity to make several
changes in terms of security, services, infrastructure,
equipment and training facilities, among others.
Well-defined economic indicators exist for most
sectors. But sport, in a similar way to tourism and
culture, lacks these due to its transverse activity, crossing
boundaries of different activities that can be measured
easily. However, establishing the potential for sports to
foster economic development in Marseille required some
method of evaluation and measurement. Consequently,
Marseille turned to the ICSS Enterprise, which is leading
the way in the development of a Sports Index. This
is aimed at helping cities to develop sustainable and
robust sports economic sectors and to use sport to
drive economic development in other related sectors or
industries. At this stage, the ICSS Sports Index is not a
single ranking mechanism, but rather a set of interrelated
steps, which, when combined, can deliver a more holistic
appreciation of the total wherewithal that cities command,
to enable them to develop sport in a more sustainable
manner and drive social benefits.
Legacy
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
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Legacy
Last word
Securing the Games:
Heat map of Marseille
Partner and affiliates
Other
ICT
Insurance, health
Transportation
Food / nutrition
Gas, electricity, water supplier
Finance
Construction and real estate
by the availability of appropriate data. This is a key
challenge, but nevertheless it is not an insurmountable
one. Data categorisation differs from region to region, and
even from country to country. Even across the European
Union, data catagorisation of sport through the Statistical
Classification of Economic Activities in the European
Union (NACE), which is a standard for grouping the
business activities of organisations, is not uniform.
For example, the Netherlands have identified as many
as 28 sub-categories, whereas most other European
countries have only a few sub-categories. For the CID
to generate insightful analysis, we would need the EU
countries to create a minimum of
four or more sub-categories.
Another key challenge is that
sport is not as clearly delineated
a formal economic sector and, as
mentioned earlier, is a transverse
activity that crosses into many
other sectors, such as tourism
and hospitality. Identifying and
agreeing on what the economic
sports ecosystem is comprised of is a challenging task,
but one the pilot exercise is helping to inform.
Initial insights emanating from the pilot have helped
Marseille to validate its approach and identify key pillars
on which to build a robust and sustainable sports sector.
This is a complex task that is evolving both in terms
of refining the approach and applying the results and
remains dynamic.
Initial insights emanating from the pilot
have helped Marseille to validate its
approach and identify key pillars
Moving forward, the challenge now will be to increase
the number of respondents to approximately 500 in order
to improve the level of confidence in the findings, as well
as their general applicability.
When Professor Ricardo Hausmann, the Director
of the Center for International Development (CID) at
Harvard Kennedy School, was approached by the ICSS
to collaborate in the application of the CID Atlas of
Macroeconomic Complexity to design the model for the
ICSS Sports Index, he initially cautioned that the success
of the applicability of the Atlas would be determined
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
Pierre Distinguin is Director of Strategy and International
Prospecting at Provence Promotion
R
obert Raine came to the job of Olympic security
director with no shortage of major sports event
experience; having previously held full-time
responsibility within the UK civil service for the
2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, as well as
carrying out the assessment for the government as to
whether or not to bid for the 2012 London Games.
Handling safety and security for the Olympics was
then, at least in part, a matter of scaling up on past
experiences, but he was still in little doubt as to the
size and scope of the task and what he describes as
“the Olympic difference – being so big, so many events
and so much in the public eye”.
For more than 100 days between May and September
2012, in preparation for the Games as well as during
the Olympics themselves, 30 sporting and 70 other
venues across the UK had to be secured, and the safety
of 14,000 athletes and no less than 10 million spectators
ensured. There were also foreign VIPs to be protected and
the numerous non-sporting events that accompany the
Olympic and Paralympic Games also had to be secured.
Indeed, part of Raine’s mission was to “ensure that
all the government agencies, police forces, armed services
and private companies involved in providing security were
aware of the scale” as well as the nature of that task.
“Welding all those together in a collaborative effort was
fundamental,” he says, “bringing together the best that
each party could provide as one highly effective team.”
Raine continues: “The police led the overall operation,
but the military brought their significant capability
in counter-terrorism. That pretty much went without
question.” Moreover, the sheer number of personnel
required to maintain the Olympic village as a ‘secure
bubble’ – as well as provide security at all the other
stadia and sporting locations – meant that more had
to be asked of the armed forces.
The private sector played an important role – although
G4S very publicly failed to meet its contractual terms to
provide the promised number of security personnel, and
the armed forces’ presence was needed to make up the
Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
Sports clubs
Non-professional sports club
Professional sports club
Network
30 minutes by the respondents in the future. It also aims
to make it easier to determine the real perception of the
population about their competitive advantages regarding
assets, threats, opportunities, weaknesses and so on, with
regard to sport, business and the community.
International studies looking into the impact of sport
on society have shown that the margin between perception
and reality is not as always as wide as some anticipate.
However, this is provided that the selected respondents
are knowledgeable about the field being considered.
This was the case with the 50 economic and social
sport contacts involved in this survey.
Ensuring security and safety at the London 2012 Olympic Games “was the biggest
security operation in the UK… since the end of the Second World War”, says
Robert Raine, who was Director of Olympic and Paralympic Security at the
Home Office during the Games
Map data ©2015 Google
Sport-related companies
Distributor
Sports school / classes
Sport equipment rent
Agents, events, facilities, tourism
Equipment manufacturer
Other
Not specified
a historic operation
Robert Raine speaks at an Olympics security conference
required numbers. “They also provided a very reassuring
presence and fulfilled a role that the various UK police
forces simply couldn’t undertake alone,” Raine explains.
The sailing races off Weymouth on the English south
coast provide an example. Dorset Police did not have
the resources to secure the offshore waters in which the
sailing took place and the Royal Navy was therefore
asked to step in. Reporting to the civilian police force,
it was happy to provide the assets to do just that.
The Royal Navy secured the River Thames running
through London, while the Royal Air Force patrolled the
skies above the capital. Soldiers, meanwhile, played their
part on the ground, dressed – unusually for military forces
providing a security presence at a British sporting venue –
in combat uniforms. Police maintained order and delivered
their criminal deterrence and arrest capability, not only
contributing to the anti-terrorism effort, but also policing
demonstrations, combating the danger of organised
crime and handling all the usual problems at big sporting
events related to petty criminality, such as theft and
ticket touting. On the whole, more than 50,000 people
were eventually involved in all aspects of the Games’
security operation, including police, military, government,
organising committee and private security companies.
ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
101
Jae Hong/AP/PA Images
Last word
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Military personnel carry out searches at a check point
in the Olympic Park during London 2012. The armed
forces played a major role in the security operation
As well as physical security, there was a massive
programme of work going on in the background. Carrying
out the appropriate accreditation for relevant individuals
was a huge task. The UK’s various intelligence agencies
played their part in deterring and preventing terrorist
attacks and the Cabinet Office led on the cyber danger.
All this was coordinated by Raine and his team, working
under the UK’s Director General of the Office for Security
and Counter-Terrorism, Charles Farr.
Raine’s office devised the security framework
around which the various elements of the security
operation worked, providing the overarching security
strategy, a concept of operations and a programme
of action. The security operation cost a little less than
£1.1 billion, but came in under budget – as did the Games
as a whole. Raine is in no doubt that the money was well
spent. Intelligence was received that there were terrorist
groups interested in attacking the Games, but the security
operation and counter-measures taken were more than
sufficient to prevent any terrorist from actually attempting
such a move. “There is no doubt that they would have
tried if they felt they had the opportunity,” Raine warns.
Lessons learnt
The small number of demonstrations mounted were
effectively policed and the terrorist threat was successfully
countered. The Games themselves were a big success,
with the large-scale security operation implemented
not felt to have impacted on the spectacle or visitors’
enjoyment. Moreover, “the role the government played –
unusually for the UK, where security for major sporting
events is normally the responsibility of the venue operator
– in setting the strategy and coordinating security efforts
proved very effective”, Raine believes.
There were some lessons to be learnt, however,
Raine notes, pointing in particular to the struggle
that on occasion took place regarding operational
and financial responsibility for security at venues.
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ICSS Journal – Vol 3 | No 1
The London Organising Committee (LOCOG) had its own
very small security budget and who paid for what was a
matter for dispute at times. It would have been better for
the security budget to have been kept as one pot in the
hands of the Home Office, he considers.
Moreover, while some of those involved were very keen
even in the initial planning stages of the security operation
to confirm their agency’s role in the overall effort, some
Editor
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The security operation
came in under budget
were more reticent and many felt that preparation could
be left to a later date. In particular, the Olympic organisers
tended to work on a just-in-time model, Raine says – not
ideal when coordinating a massive security effort involving
numerous different forces and companies. It also made
training and exercises more difficult to prepare and hold.
For any other country hosting the Olympic Games, the
challenges will be different to those that faced Raine and
his colleagues, he points out: “The UK government and
its population is well used to facing a terrorist threat
and its security forces are well used to working together
– sometimes on specific major projects – to counter it.
That might not be the case elsewhere.” Different cultures
will also require different ways of working. The use of the
armed forces might elsewhere be contentious, for example.
There may also be less willingness to work with foreign
intelligence agencies and private-sector stakeholders (such
as the International Olympic Committee, and its various
demands relating to ensuring security at the Games) than
there was in the UK. “Whatever the location, concerns
about terrorist attacks will exist, however, and will have
to be managed,” Raine concludes.
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