VENUE SECURITY
THREATS TO SPORTS VENUES AND ATHLETES Sport venue managers need to be aware of risk assessment methodologies to detect threats identify vulnerabilities, and reduce consequences, as the UK terrorism threat level is raised to severe. WORDS: SCOTT STEWART, VP OF INTELLIGENCE AT TORCHSTONE GLOBAL
On November 15, the United Kingdom’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) raised the UK’s national terrorism threat level from “substantial” to “severe.” The change reflects the JTAC’s assessment that the threat of a terrorist attack in the UK had changed from “likely” to “highly likely”.
The decision was made in the wake of two recent terrorist attacks in the UK. The first was the October 15, 2021 murder of Sir David Amess, a member of the British Parliament who was stabbed multiple times by a Syrian refugee while meeting with constituents in Leigh-on-Sea. The second incident was a failed suicide bombing attack against the Liverpool Women’s Hospital on November 14. In that case, the attacker took a taxi to the hospital, but his device detonated prematurely before he could enter the hospital. The would-be attacker was killed but the taxi driver was only lightly injured in the incident, and it appears the bomb was poorly constructed, causing more incendiary than explosive damage. With the JTAC raising the threat level to severe and given the persistent threat of terrorism in the rest of Europe and the developed world, it is a good time to 18 | OTFF ISSUE 18 ★ DECEMBER 2021
examine the threat posed by terrorists to sporting venues. Location, Location, Location Real estate agents say that there are three main elements that drive real estate prices: location, location, and location. The same thing is true for terrorism threats – location makes a great deal of difference in assessing the terrorism threat. This is primarily due to three factors: the terrorist threat actors who are active in a geographic area; their access to weapons and explosives; and the capabilities of the security forces. For example, due to the number of terrorist actors active in Pakistan, their easy access to weapons and explosives, and the limitations of the security forces, the threat level for a cricket match in Pakistan would be far higher than that of a match in Australia or Wales. Terrorist groups, to include jihadist groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State, have worked to conduct attacks in the developed world. Examples include the 9/11 attacks and the November 2015 Paris attacks that began with an attack at the Stade de France during a match
between France and Germany. However, due to the successful efforts by security services to identify and disrupt larger terrorist organizations, at the present time, the primary threat of terrorism in the developed world stems from self-initiated, grassroots terrorists who are sympathetic to terrorist causes but who have little or no formal connection to professional terrorist groups. This applies to terrorists motivated by all types of ideologies to include neo-Naziism, anarchism, and jihadism. Examples of such attacks include the 2019 attack against a synagogue by a neo-Nazi in Halle Germany, and the 2019 attack against the Fishmonger’s Hall in London. The Limits of Grassroots Operatives While grassroots terrorists can be a challenge for the authorities to identify due to their lack of connections to formal terrorist groups, their lack of association also means that they typically are bereft of terrorist tradecraft skills such as bomb building and attack planning. Because of this, they are less capable than professional terrorist cadres. Due to this lack of capability, they tend to attack lightly defended “soft” targets rather than better defended venues. In a sporting venue context, this means that attackers are unlikely to be able to
