'Tangible' Terror Threat at Euro 2016, Warn Organisers

There is a "palpable" threat of acts of terror being carried out at the tournament after the recent Paris attacks, according to the president of the Euro 2016 organising committee, Jacques Lambert.

The attacks, which saw radical Islamists target the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery, have heightened fears that the football tournament will be targeted because of the opportunity for terror groups to present their cause to a large audience.

"The terrorist risk was present from the beginning," Lambert told AFP news agency.

"When I wrote the host bid in 2009, the terrorist threat was part of the 12 risks identified as major at an event like this," he added.

"What the events in January have changed is that a theoretical risk has become a tangible risk, palpable, since it was carried through."

"It doesn't probably change much for the security professionals regarding preparations of the event."

"But you see that for everyone, public opinion, media, teams, it adds a special intensity," he said.

Henry Wilkinson, head of intelligence and analysis at the global risk management consultancy Risk Advisory Group, said that French authorities would have already planned for a terror threat "as high as it is now or higher" in spite of the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

"Major high-profile international sporting tournaments, where you've got lots of different agents competing and the whole world is watching, will immediately be attractive to terrorist organisations who are obviously looking for opportunities to publicise their cause and create a higher impact," he said.

The security measures implemented at stadiums in order to mitigate against the heightened terror threat will be routine, according to Wilkinson.

"They will be carrying out threat-based risk assessments on associated events as well. Obviously, in sporting events the venues are relatively easy to secure, you can subject people to going through metal detectors or checkpoints."

However, Wilkinson believes that French authorities will be more concerned about the threat to events related to the tournament, such as large gatherings.

"The main areas of concern that they will probably have are high-profile events in unsecured areas such as bars and pubs and big-screens in public places," he claimed.

"Other potential targets that terrorists have struck before, such as mass transportation networks, are where you would expect to see increased levels of police presence and surveillance."

"It's oriented around risk assessing what the most likely targets are and putting adequate risk mitigation in place," he concluded.

While both Lambert and Wilkinson claim that the Paris attacks will not change the preparations of security services for international sporting events, Dr Florian Otto, head of Europe at global risk analytics company Verisk Maplecroft argues that jihadists with European passports returning from Iraq and Syria have altered "the security situation significantly".

"The issue of European nationals travelling to Syria and Iraq, becoming more radicalised, gaining combat experience and returning to their home countries has led to a significant increase in the risk of terrorist attacks taking place in Europe," he says.

Monitoring group International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR) estimates that up to 1,200 French nationals have travelled to Iraq and Syria since the start of the Syrian civil war to fight for radical Islamist militant groups.

"Even if only a fraction of those is actually ready and determined to commit an attack in France, it alters the security situation significantly, and monitoring 'returnees' will place significant strain on the security services for years to come."

The two brothers who carried out the Paris attacks, Cherif and Said Kouachi, travelled to Yemen via Oman in 2011 and returned to carry out their assault, which killed 12 people, on behalf of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Otto says that "the Paris attacks serve as a reminder that the threat [from foreign jihadists] is multi-faceted".

"Home-grown radicals, as well as externally directed groups continue to represent a very real threat, even if – until the Paris attacks – they have not received a lot of public attention recently."

There were also fears of the tournament becoming a target at Euro 2012, hosted in Poland and Ukraine, following a series of bomb blasts hit the city of Dnipropetrovsk just months before the tournament kicked-off.

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