DFootball association leaders today challenged the entities, government, security forces and the Portuguese Football Federation to create a national security program for sporting events.
“The role of a delegate should be practical in all competitions and there should be a national security program for non-professional sporting events”, argued the president of the Viana do Castelo District Football Association.
Ricardo Felgueiras considered that this program should “involve the Portuguese Football Federation, the Government, district associations and security agents for continuous and aligned training” across the country.
This person was speaking on the panel about “The challenges of security in non-professional competitions” during the fourth edition of S4 – International Congress Safety, Security, Service at Sports Events (protection, security, and reception at sporting events, free translation), which ends today in Viseu, organized by the Authority for the Prevention and Combat of Violence in Sports (APCVD).
A panel that also included the participation of the president of the National Association of Football Delegates (ANDF), Paulo Renato, the Security manager of Leça Futebol Clube, Paulo Silva, and the commander of the Ovar Detachment, of the Aveiro Territorial Command, of the National Republican Guard (GNR), Telmo Gomes.
With the Secretary of State for Sports, Pedro Dias, sitting in the audience, Ricardo Felgueiras challenged the government to “finance this program, as it saved some money, because there is no longer security in most training games”.
The remaining participants also warned of the “need to train younger people, especially in training games, not only athletes but also fans, who are mostly parents”.
“One of the biggest problems is the parents, because the majority are convinced that they have a Ronaldo at home and this often becomes a problem”, said Paulo Silva.
This Leça official challenged the clubs to “make a report at the end of each game so that, when preparing for the next game, the clubs know what happened in the last match and which ones have the most emotional fans/parents”.
“In a few months we would have a picture of the training games and the security planning and its organization would be more reliable to achieve”, he defended.
GNR commander Telmo Gomes took advantage of his parents’ suggestion to challenge the creation of campaigns, such as road prevention or recycling.
“And this could be part of or involve the Ministry of Education, because the children in training today are the professional athletes, the fans and the managers of tomorrow and, if we start working now, within 10 to 15 years we will be able to have a different mentality and behavior at sporting events”, defended the captain.
