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Euro 2016: Uefa reject claim that matches could be played behind closed doors after Brussels terror attacks

Uefa executive committe vice-president Giancarlo Abete claimed that they could not rule out locking fans out of matches at Euro 2016 due to security fears

Jack de Menezes
Wednesday 23 March 2016 12:37 GMT
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Police outside the Stade de France following last November's terror attacks
Police outside the Stade de France following last November's terror attacks

Euro 2016 could be played behind closed doors with fans locked out of the stadiums in France due to the security threat faced after the terror attacks in Brussels, Uefa’s executive committee vice-president has revealed.

Giancarlo Abete has admitted that the horrifying events in the Belgian capital on Monday morning could lead to a review of this summer’s event, where 24 national teams will compete in the European Championship in nearby France.

Last November’s terror attacks in Paris, which included a suicide bomb explosion at the Stade de France during an international friendly between the French and Germany, remain strong in the memory, and security fears at the tournament have only been increased following the events in Brussels.

Uefa issued a statement on Monday in which it “reaffirmed its commitment in placing safety and security at the centre of its organisational plans for Euro 2016”, but Abete admitted that the European governing body could take further action to ensure the highest levels of security are maintained.

“Euro 2016 is the kind of event we can’t delay or postpone,” Abete told Radio 24. “We can’t exclude the possibility of playing behind closed doors as we cannot exclude terrorism. If we talked about potentially cancellable games such as a friendly or a competitive match that could be moved to another date, obviously this would not be the case.

“But we are talking about games which are staged for June, whereas today we are going through about a very urgent emergency.”

The world mourns for Brussels

However, in a secondary statement released on Tuesday, Uefa rejected the possibility of locking fans out of the stadiums, and insisted they will take security concerns “very seriously” throughout the tournament duration.

"We are confident that all security measures will be in place for a safe and festive Euro and therefore there are no plans to play matches behind closed doors,” the statement read.

"However, we are nevertheless working on contingency plans and on multiple scenarios around crisis situations since we take the security of all participants (players, fans, etc) very seriously."

Giancarlo Abete claimed Uefa could not rule out playing Euro 2016 behind closed doors

The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, insisted that everything will be done to ensure that the tournament is safe for fans to travel to. Thousands of British fans will travel to France for the tournament, many of which who will not have matchday tickets and will instead attend the planned fan zones across the country.

Cazeneuve said on Tuesday that “collective security” will be provided for the fan zones in the form of trained emergency staff, police and firefighters, and added that all fan zones will be swept for explosives every day with metal detectors located at entrances. 900 guards have already been allocated to each individual match as part of 10,000 people recruited in security roles for Euro 2016.

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