Counterterrorism Blog

In 23 days the 2008 European soccer Cup (Euro 2008), this year hosted jointly by Austria and Switzerland, will kickoff. As for any event attracting large crowds and global attention in today’s age, authorities are worried about potential terrorist threats. The Euro Cup, in a way, presents the same security features of a Super Bowl, but it is held in 8 different cities over 3 weeks and with the participation of 16 national teams, making security planning significantly more complicated. Just yesterday Swiss newspaper La Liberté reported an interview with Jürg Bühler, a security official with the Swiss Federal Police, in which Mr. Bühler revealed that his agency has been monitoring threats against the event made by several users of various Islamist websites. While there seems to be no specific threat so far, Mr. Bühler correctly pointed out that vigilance should be kept high, as soccer competitions have attracted the attention of jihadist networks in Europe in the past.

Weeks before the 1998 World Cup held in France police across Europe conducted raids against a network of Algerian militants, apprehending more than 100 individuals. According to French authorities the men were planning a string of attacks against stadiums during the World Cup, even though some believed French authorities used the World Cup as an excuse to crack down on Algerian networks (coincidentally, Farid Benyettou, a militant with close links to the 1998 network, was convicted just yesterday in Paris for recruiting young French Muslims to fight against U.S. forces in Iraq). Allegedly, a similar plot was uncovered by French authorities against Paris’ Stade de France in October 2001, when police arrested a handful of North African men reportedly planning to carry out an attack during the France-Algeria soccer match.

Authorities suspected a terrorist attack was planned also during the 2004 Euro Cup held in Portugal. Days before the beginning of the tournament Portuguese authorities, acting on a tip from Dutch intelligence, arrested three members of the Hofstad group in the city of Oporto. The men were deported and never charged with any crime, but authorities suspected the three wanted to target former Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Barroso (the plot was never fully confirmed). Authorities believe that the 2006 World Cup held in Germany was also targeted by jihadists. Various Islamist websites issued threats against it, but, more concretely, authorities found out, months after the event, that Ayman Hawa and Jihad Hamad, the two Lebanese men that placed suitcases filled with explosives (which, luckily, failed to detonate) on two German commuter trains in July 2006, had initially thought of targeting the World Cup.

On one hand major mediatic attention, the possibility of targeting large crowds (in and out of stadiums) and striking at Europe’s most cherished pastime make Euro 2008 a potential target for terrorists. Austria and Switzerland have a small presence of militants and sympathizers (even though in borderless Europe this has only limited relevance, as the threat could easily come from militants based in other European countries). Austria has recently dismantled its first homegrown network, which was running the German-language branch of the Global Islamic Media Front. The 2007 security report recently released by Swiss federal authorities clearly points to homegrown jihadist networks as “the most serious threat” to the country’s security. On the other hand, there is no reason to be alarmists. Not only is there no specific threat, but terrorists like surprises and easy targets and events such as Euro 2008 offer neither. Most of the plots described above, aside from the one targeting the 1998 World Cup in France, seem to have been either very abstract or very amateurish, often little more than just wishes.

While the terrorist threat clearly worries Swiss and Austrian authorities, who are working closely with their counterparts throughout Europe, a more concrete fear is that of hooliganism, given the precedents of urban guerrilla that took place before and/or after some games (particularly England’s) of the 1998 France World Cup, 2000 Euro Cup (held in Belgium and Holland) and the 2006 Germany World Cup (and just last night there were riots during and after the UEFA Cup final between Glasgow Rangers and Zenit of Saint Petersburg and a Russian fan was stabbed).