World Cup organisers face problems

Forget hooligans -- the big threat to security at the 2006 World Cup will come from irate VIPs, journalists trying to barge through checkpoints and marketing executives putting sales before safety.

As manager of the Luz stadium that hosted the Euro 2004 final in Lisbon, Jitesse Arquissandas has first-hand knowledge of the pitfalls World Cup organisers in Germany are likely to face.

"The worst people in the stadium are the VIPs," Arquissandas warned the country's soccer community during a technology and security forum held at the World Cup stadium in Hamburg, one of the 12 host cities for the tournament.

"You send an invitation to a president, the president brings his son and there's no way anyone's going to stop him. We have to tell everyone that they must accredit -- everyone.

"You have to be certain now that no-one gets through without a ticket or pass -- not the president of the club, not the president of the republic."

Arquissandas believes the concerted action of police and governments to stop hooligans travelling, strict ticketing rules and a less confrontational attitude towards ordinary fans have reduced the threat of violence inside the stadiums.

BOMB THREATS

He knows that more serious security risks prevail, however, after Euro 2004 was staged in the shadow of the March 11 Madrid bombings over the border in Spain.

"The big threats come from accreditation and bombs," he told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. "We had many bomb threats at Euro 2004, which wasn't long after March 11.

"Hooligans are not such a problem. The worst are now classified and unable to travel. You might get one or two or 10 inside the ground but that's nothing in a crowd of 65,000.

"We had a big fight with UEFA (the Euro 2004 organisers) over segregation and in the end we just had small barriers between the fans. The important thing was that there were no cages. If you put fans in cages you provoke them."

The final of Euro 2004, a shock 1-0 victory for Greece against host nation Portugal in the newly built Luz, was seen as a success on the organisational front but there were plenty of problems behind the scenes.

"I'd definitely do things differently now," Arquissandas said in his candid talk to representatives of the German Football Association and other delegates who will be involved in staging the World Cup.

"We found out that the seats we built for the teams were too big -- restricting the view of 1,200 seats -- and that the dressing rooms were too small.

WIVES' CARS

"We also had a problem with the players' wives, who all wanted to park their cars and had to be treated almost like the players themselves.

"I tell you, you have to be very careful of the VIPs."

World Cup stadium organisers should be wary of problems from other unlikely sources.

"With the media, everyone knows you after the first few days and they try to be your friend and push in where they're not supposed to," Arquissandas said. "That creates problems with the teams and coaches, who say they don't want to give interviews to everyone.

"We also had marketing people putting their kiosks in front of the emergency exits because they'd already done a deal with the sponsors.

"I love TV people but for me it's a nightmare. They want to put cable everywhere and stick things up all over the place.

"I came back the day after the final to my new stadium and it was like it was 10 years old."

This week's conference was specifically designed to promote new technology in stadium security but Arquissandas warned that hi-tech systems could also go wrong.

"We lost our comms network at Euro 2004 at one point and we had everyone running around trying out their own solutions," he said. "You need to have a back-up network, and even a non-computerised contingency plan.