January 7 – Brazil has released detail of its increased security plan for the World Cup later this year, saying it will be doubling the number of security personnel in comparison to the 2013 Confederations Cup, to 100,000.
The security detail will include officers from the police and military, as well as members of the National Force. The National Force is an elite unit that will be on stand-by and deployed if necessary.
The arrangements were revealed by Andrei Rodrigues, special secretary for security and safety at major events, who has been on a week-ling tour of the 12 cities that will host the World Cup. His fact finding trip as taken in each venue and the local policing plan. He will report his finding back to Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.
“In June for the Confederations Cup there were 50,000 mobilised across Brazil. We estimate there will be 100,000 security professionals mobilized for the World Cup,” Rodrigues told reporters.
The Confederations Cup was blighted by street protests with at one point hundreds of thousands of protestors demonstrating about government corruption and the scale of the infrastructure costs, including the World Cup stadia build, in contrast to government provision of social services like health, education and improved housing. There were further, but small, protests last week.
Brazil’s passion for football can’t be denied though, though the passion can turn violent. Earlier this week about 100 fans of Sao Paulo club Corinthians broke into the club’s training ground and attacked players. The training ground will be used by Iran at the World Cup in June.
Protesting against the poor performance of the team, the fans cut through a wire mesh fence and confronted players and staff. The stand-off turned violent and the fans grabbed Peruvian striker Paolo Guerrero by the neck as well as targeting striker Emerson Sheik and former AC Milan forward Alexandre Pato.
No-one was seriously injured. The club were holding a training session the day before they were scheduled to play Ponte Preta in the Sao Paulo state championship. Initially the players said they did not want to play dues to safety fears. The match did go ahead with Ponte Preta winning 2-1.
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