Germany: Interior Ministers' security plans for the 2006 World Cup
01 May 2005
Since the announcement that Germany will host football's World Cup in 2006, Interior Ministers have begun planning security measures that involve surveillance, biometrics, preventative policing and data exchange. On 25 May, a special Interior Ministers conference (IMK) in Stuttgart passed the measures, which envisage increased CCTV surveillance, the possible suspension of the Schengen Convention, preventative detention and increased international police cooperation. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) transponders will be integrated into fans' tickets to check their movements and to "prevent fraud". Data protection officers believe that the World Cup will be used as a large-scale experiment to promote RFID technology in the commercial sector.
According to the newspaper
Berliner Zeitung, but denied by the IMK chair Heribert Rech (from the conservative CDU), the classified version of the security plan includes new biometric technologies to be used at the matches. According to the newspaper, special cameras will be deployed that are able to identify people with the help of biometric data. The report suggests that even if a ticket-holder disposes of his/her RFID ticket after entry into the stadium, the cameras would be able to trace him/her. Facial recognition technology is already being used in a pilot project in the Netherlands at the Eindhoven football club, where the "FaceVACS-Alert" software is being provided by the German company Cognitec. Camera images will be compared with an existing "hooligan" photograph database. This is likely to include images from other Member States, particularly the Netherlands and the UK, which have also trialed facial recognition technology.
In Germany, the "violent sports offenders" databank currently holds around 6,200 records of people who are classified as either "violent" or "on occasion prone to violence". According to the Association of Active Football Fans (BAFF -
Bündnis aktiver Fussballfans), inclusion in this database is arbitrary, being entirely at the discretion of the police. Inclusion in the system is often on grounds of non-violent acts, such as carrying a glass bottle to the game or urinating in public. The individual whose data is held is not informed and there have been cases where supporters have found themselves surrounded by police and taken for questioning at an airport or during a routine traffic check because they appear on police monitors as "violent offenders". As is the custom at international football events, other Member States will share their respective databases with the German police under the banner of international police cooperation.
According to the security plans, not only the stadia but also public spaces where the games will be transmitted will be put under CCTV surveillance. In addition, police will be equipped with mobile optical fingerprint identification systems that are linked to the central fingerprint database. A special anti-terrorist team of "experts", from the internal and external security services and the Federal Crime Police Authority, is preparing for possible terrorist attacks and will operate from a specially created "Information and Competency centre" in Berlin. Stadiums will be surrounded by two security rings, the first can only be crossed with the RFID ticket containing the personal data of the ticket holder. Arbitrary spot checks in the second security ring will then be used to verify that the ticket holder is the person authorised to hold it. Green party spokeswoman Silke Stokar criticised the planned large-scale CCTV surveillance and RFID use and said "Schily would like to know who is present and where he is sitting at every game". Interior minister Otto Schily, however, has reassured the public that "we are going to organise it in such a way that no visitor will have the feeling that he lives in a police state". The authorities tested elements of the security plan during the Confederations Cup held in