ISSUE 24 IN THIS ISSUE - The Football Association

UK EXPERTS VISIT BRAzILIN BUILD-UP TO 2014and Santa Cruz as guests of the President ofthe Pernambuco Football Federation, wherethey witnessed policing techniques and themanagement of some 36,000 spectators,including 3,000 fans of the visiting team.In Pernambuco, the football authorities arecommitted to working with the criminal justiceagencies, providing facilities in each majorstadium to hold a ‘Fans Court’.In Brasilia the Central Intelligence Agencyof the Ministry for Justice held a one dayconference for 90 delegates from the Sportand Justice Ministries and civil and militarypolice from the 17 cities bidding to hostmatches at the 2014 FIFA World Cup TM Brazil.The UK delegates outlined the transformationof English football since the stadium disasters ofthe 1980s, highlighting legislation changes, theUK Football Policing Unit, intelligence officersand the experience of the Crown ProsecutionService at 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germanyto ensure that English offenders received aUK Football Banning Order.With the 2014 FIFA World Cup TM on thehorizon, a group of seven UK specialistswere invited to Brazil to deliver twoseminars on stadium security on 3 and 7April 2009. The multi-agency delegationconsisted of Nick Hawkins and SimonClements (Crown Prosecution Service),David Bohannan (Home Office), RichardWoolford (Metropolitan Police), ChrisBroome (UK Football Policing Unit), ChrisWhalley and Joseph Oakeshott (The FA).While The FA has already delivered seminarson stadium safety and security throughout theCONMEBOL region, this was the first in Brazil,five time-winners of the World Cup and 2014FIFA World Cup TM hosts. In Recife, capitalof the state of Pernambuco, the delegationspoke at the ‘Supporting Peace’ Seminarand attended the opening of the ‘Juizado doTorcedor’ or Fans Court, a Pernambuco pilotproject. The Fans Court allows a simple, speedyand summary disposal of low level offendingwhere the defendant does not have to acceptthe jurisdiction of the Court, but most do asthe maximum penalty is a short local banningorder, community service or a fine (donated toa local hospital) and attendance on a probationprogramme. The UK delegation attended thelocal derby match between Sport Club RecifeUK officials discuss the ‘Fans Court’initiative with Pernambuco State Judges.Chris Whalley, FA Head of Stadia, Safety andSecurity said: “The audience will have notedhow, in England, the Government, Police, TheFootball Authorities and Prosecutors all workclosely together on the themes of dealing withfootball violence and stadium safety and security.This has been key to the successes achieved inEngland and the composition of our delegationto Brazil underlined this partnership approach.We were delighted to have been invited to takepart in this exchange of experiences with ourcolleagues in Brazil and we wish them everysuccess on the road to staging the 2014 FIFAWorld Cup TM .”COMMUNIQUE ISSUE 249