The most surveilled World Cup in history?: 50,000 agents, 15,000 cameras and even an elite group to prevent attacks

The Qatar 2022 World Cup which will start this Sunday will be controlled by a security system of 50,000 agents, partly supplied by special forces from foreign countries, and by a video surveillance center which will concentrate the images of the 15,000 cameras deployed in the eight stadiums of the competition. .

“Our priority is to ensure that visitors experience a safe and secure environment. We have conducted an extensive security training program which will ensure a safe and successful tournament. Qatar has established numerous agreements with key international security forces which have contributed to share information and improve practices,” he said telam the general secretary of the Supreme Committee, Hassan Al Thawadi.

The World Cup organizing emirate, whose stable population is 2.8 million, takes up the challenge of bringing together more than 1.5 million visitors from all over the planet for 29 days of football.

Faced with that scenario, one of the major concerns of local authorities is the coexistence of supporters in public spaces Doha, where the security forces will have the task of enforcing the norms of Arab culture.

Special anti-riot units from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy and South Korea will provide their services so that the World Cup can be held in peace.

“Organizations such as Interpol, the UK Home Office, the FBI, the French gendarmerie are helping to ensure that we are ready for the tournament. We have the necessary security to protect the fans,” Al Thawadi assured.

“We have gained hands-on experience in every mega sporting event we have hosted since we obtained the right to host in 2010. We have been part of the security teams of many World Cups, Euro Cups, Champions Leagues and Copa América. They have all helped develop the our approach to safety and to train our staff”.

The Qatar National Football Information Point (Qnfip) has centralized reports submitted by different governments on records of football hooliganism, violence, threats and individuals with criminal records.

Argentina’s Ministry of Security provided a list of 6,000 people last weekhalf of which identified as bars, on which the right of access to stadiums weighs, which in turn will have banned access to the Gulf country.

Colonel Jabr Hammoud Jabr Al Nuaimi, a spokesman for Qatar’s interior ministry, said more than 50,000 officers had been trained to ensure security during the FIFA World Cup.

Within that vast body is one of the toughest police forces in the world, Turkey’s special operations unit known as Polis-Ozel-Harekat, which has sent 3,000 men to the Middle East.

His task will be to ensure that there are no terrorist attacks in the eight World Cup stadiums or in the sporting surroundings, as well as in the hotels that will host the 32 teams and fans.

In parallel, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) signed a “close cooperation” agreement to provide training against “threats posed by chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials”.

The stadiums that will operate from 20 November to 18 December, the opening and closing days of the competition, have 15,000 facial recognition cameras who will send their footage to the operations center located on the grounds of the Khalifa International stadium.

“The idea of ​​connecting all the stadiums was possible due to the compact nature of this World Cup,” said the head of the monitoring unit, Niyas Abdulrahiman, of the tight radius containing all the match venues.

“This allows us to have eyes, ears and a presence in all stadiums simultaneously. We can see all 15,000 cameras spread across the eight stadiums and do surveillance from here. We get a lot of data and we’re going to make the most of it,” he said. promised .

In the event of any episode disturbing the environment of a World Cup stadium, alarms will be triggered on the huge monitor panel as an initiation of the action protocol by the operators.

In this case, the guards can issue orders to control the situation, decide to evacuate the venues, form a police cordon on the perimeter to prevent more people from entering and put the rest of the World Cup stadiums on alert.

The entire World Cup security procedure was put into practice with the Watan 2022 exercise held from 24 to 27 October, through which the military and civilian bodies involved implemented a deployment plan under the supervision of Colonel Mubarak Sherida Al-Kaabi.

GL