Germany is preparing to launch a huge security device on the occasion of the Euro 2024 football championship, which begins this Friday. The Federal Police is going to carry out the largest deployment since its founding in 1951.
About 22,000 agents They will be on duty every day, without vacation time, until the end of the competition, which will conclude on July 14. The French police officers will not be alone, as they will have the support of agents from other international security forces.
Karsten Taeschner, spokesman for the Thuringian Police, warns of the so-called “risk actors“, because sport, he says, “can never be taken into consideration in isolation from world political events.”
In that sense, Taeschner points out that they must “be prepared for war or political conflicts of other types, because something like this can quickly affect the sport. We, as police officers, try prepare as best we can in every sense, and also, with respect to the exercise we carry out today. The message to football fans who want to follow this sporting competition is that they are all welcome. “We, as state and federal police, are preparing 100%.”
Restrictions on beer consumption and special attention to high-risk matches
In recent years it has violence resurfaced in it soccer in All Europe, with especially worrying episodes in Greece, Türkiye and France. For Euro 2024, Germany expects the arrival of hundreds of thousands of fans.
The matches will take place in 10 different cities. Four of them are located in the densely populated Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, easily accessible from neighboring countries thanks to excellent rail connections.
The Euro 2016 of France was seen marred by violence when radical Russian fans went around Marseille attacking English fans.
Fans will only be able to drink low alcohol beer outside the stadiumwhile will not be allowed in the stands. Also drinking will be prohibited in the center of cities at night.
England’s match against Serbia, on Sunday in Gelsenkirchen, has been classified by UEFA as high risk. Others high risk matches They are those of Poland, Croatia, Romania, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.
