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The European Response to Football Hooliganism
The EU handbook
The main act of the Council of the European Union to prevent football hooliganism was the publishing of a handbook for international police co-operation that sets out measures to prevent and control violence and disturbances in connection with international football matches in 1999. This handbook is aimed to fulfil part of the European Union's objective to provide its citizens with a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice by developing common action among the Member States in the field of police co-operation. It is to do with the Council resolution of the 9th June 1997 on preventing and restraining football hooliganism through the exchange of experience, exclusion from stadiums and media policy. The need for the handbook came about as a response to the experiences of football hooliganism at the 1996 European Championship and the 1998 World Cup. Its aim was to establish a European framework for police co-operation amongst Member States. The handbook contains a number of recommendations to facilitate police co-operation where at least one Member State is involved either as a participant in the match or hosting the match. The first chapter of the handbook sets out how police forces should prepare for a major football event. According to the handbook, the first step is a request for support that should come from the minister responsible in the organising country. He will have consulted with the police forces involved and the request should mention the scale of support. The request should come in plenty of time so the police force of the foreign country has at least eight weeks to prepare. International police co-operation should be aimed towards ensuring the safety of the event with these specific aims in mind:
- Intelligence gathering
- Reconnaissance
- Spotting
- Crowd control under police supervision
The police forces from the country providing support should provide an advance risk analysis that includes profiles of visiting fans and a report on the main risk that these fans pose. These reports will be continually updated and the national football hooliganism contacts in the various countries, for example the National Criminal Intelligence Service's football intelligence unit in the UK, will co-ordinate the provision of information to the police force of the organising country. The risk analysis will also determine which area of policing mentioned above will take priority. It is also the responsibility of the foreign police force to indicate the extent to which it can provide support the domestic police force and the scale of the foreign police team will be decided through consultation. This will relate to the threat and risk posed by fans from their country. Depending on the nature of the support needed, foreign police team could be responsible for the following duties:
- Police officers on the ground dealing with reconnaissance, spotting or escorting duties
- Co-ordinating the work of officers and channelling information
- A spokesperson
- A liaison officer exchanging information between his country and the host country
- A leader who is responsible for a team of officers
The second part of the handbook refers to organising co-operation between countries. This should improve the quality of action by the police if they already have information from the countries that violent supporters come from. Foreign police forces should be present in order to supervise fans from the start of their journey until they reach the country where the match is being played. Responsibility is transferred when the fans reach the border of the country that the match is being played in. To facilitate co-operation police forces should ensure that lines of communication and information facilities are available to foreign police forces. This includes sharing information about potential troublemakers and general fan behaviour.
