MOSCOW: Russia has deployed air defense systems and stringent fan background checks in a sweeping security operation to counter the twin threats of terror attacks and hooliganism at the World Cup.
The country was already intensely policed when it was controversially awarded the right to host the event in 2010 but the clampdown that followed saw hardened hooligans seek cover and business barons wind down the operations of factories that process hazardous materials for fear they might be attacked.
Fans traveling to Russia are required to register with the police on their arrival in one of the 12 host cities and even riverboat traffic is being curtailed to make it easier for the authorities to keep track of everything that moves. At least 30,000 security personnel will fan out across Moscow by the time the hosts kick off against Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium on Thursday.
Squadrons of fighter jets will be on standby near the capital and air defenses will be on the alert for suspicious aircraft. “After long years of preparations we have created a clear security plan,” said FSB domestic security service deputy chief Alexei Lavrishchev. “We are ready to avert and overcome any security threat.”
Relevant pieces published earlier:
i) Halfway between Moscow and Saint Petersburg in a city abandoned by time, the ball pings across the slushy snow as boys emulate the stars who will shine at the World Cup. More than a thousand years old, Veliky Novgorod has followed the fate of many other historic Russian cities, losing its luster and burdened by the grim realities of provincial life. But social problems seem that little bit less important as the world’s most celebrated sports event approaches, filling abandoned corners of Russia with the thrill of the beautiful game. Watchful parents are bundled up in parkas while their children zip around a fenced-in courtyard stripped down to their sweatshirts and woolly hats, elastic scarves around their necks. The fence is made of steel beams covered in peeling rust, painful to bounce off of and emblematic of the life of hard knocks Veliky Novgorod has endured since the Soviet Union’s fall. Yet the focus here is squarely on football, which in the northern Russian springtime is played by kids in conditions more suitable to skiing. The boys come prepared. They split up into teams, dressed in jerseys with numbers on their backs. Each has his own pair of football boots, some new and some worn, which surprisingly maintain a solid grip on the mix of snow and ice packed tightly into the ground. (Published on 5th June 2018)
ii) Elite footballers face ever-increasing physical and mental demands, with a faster-paced game and long, grueling seasons. In a World Cup year, how does a player make it to June fit and fired up? It is actually quite difficult, the experts say, and requires an army of dedicated specialists tracking and carefully engineering each athlete’s mental and physical condition. Research shows that the beautiful game has become faster and more intense, requiring players to be fleeter of foot and of mind, raising stress levels and the risk of serious injury. But there is little time for rest and recuperation. Every four years, many teams enter the world’s most popular sporting extravaganza having just completed a major competition: the UEFA Champions League finished less than three weeks before the 2018 World Cup opens in Russia on June 14. “There is no real regard for the demands of international football within clubs,” said John Brewer, a professor of applied sports science at St Mary’s University in London, who helped prepare the English national team for the 1990 World Cup. “They (clubs) want their players at 100 percent until the last game, and it doesn’t matter if there’s a World Cup afterward.” What to do? Trainers rely on high-tech to keep tabs on their athletes.
iii) The 77-year-old football legend Pele confident about Brazil’s chances at the upcoming World Cup. Pele said he was expecting that injured Paris Saint-Germain striker Neymar would be fully fit to lead the side to lead Brazil to a possible sixth football title in Russia. “We don’t know exactly what is going to happen, but I think for the World Cup he’s going to be in shape because his injury is not so bad,” said Pele, the only person to have won the World Cup three times as a player. “I wish he has the same luck I had in the World Cup.” PSG’s Neymar, the world’s most expensive player, has not played since breaking a metatarsal bone in his right foot on February 25 in a Ligue 1 match against Marseille. He said last week he was still recovering following surgery but expects to be fit in time for the World Cup from June 14 to July 15.
