Fifa World Cup under drone terrorism threat, security experts warn
Fifa World Cup organisers will be on alert amid fears domestic terror cells could surface at next month’s tournament, security experts have warned.
The quadrennial tournament heads to North America next month for its next iteration – spanning 104 matches in the United States, Canada and Mexico – and keeping the millions of attending fans safe has become a major priority, more so since the continuation of the conflict between the USA and Iran – both competing in the World Cup – in the Gulf.
“The security challenge is not just big, it is unprecedented,” Kroll’s president of risk advisory Brent Tomlinson told City PM.
“The expanded 48-team format comes amid conflict in the Middle East, and the greatest threats to public safety are not from actors attempting to enter the country.
“Terroristic messaging and propaganda can inspire lone actors already in the US who need no logistical support and no advance warning. A credible threat alone, without a single act of violence, can empty a stadium and dominate headlines for days.”
World Cup threats?
Sports tournaments have become accustomed to heightened security fears due to terrorism, with a number of major events in the past succumbing to attacks. The 1998 World Cup in France saw a terror plot foiled by authorities, while the Munich Olympics featured a hostage terror situation and the 1997 Grand National was called off over IRA bomb threats.
More recently the successful terror operations have been based on cyber warfare – this year’s World Cup has already been dubbed as a major target of cyber terrorism – but physical threats remain from such devices as modified personal drones.
“The instinct is to throw resources at a problem of this scale,” Tomlinson added. “However, resource without coordination is its own vulnerability. The FBI plans to deploy just 60 trained counter-drone officers across 11 host cities, yet counter-drone systems from different agencies operating in the same airspace can interfere with each other and open the very gaps they were deployed to close.
“The same applies across every layer of physical security, from crowd management to stadium access controls. The difference will not come down to budget, but whether federal, state and local agencies are genuinely coordinating through joint operation centres and are able to respond when something goes wrong.”