Qatar Creates Sports Security Consultancy

Qatar, in a bid to position itself as a global player in world sports, has established a center for sport security, in advance of its hosting of the 2022 World Cup.

The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), headed by Helmut Spahn, a former German policeman who was in charge of security at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, intends to share information on security at international sports events and advise Qatari authorities on security for the World Cup.

Spahn is assisted by an advisory board that includes Lord John Stevens, the former Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police who headed the investigation into the death of Princess Diana, former English Premier League chief executive Rick Parry and Peter Ryan, who was Commissioner of the New South Wales Police when Sydney hosted the 2000 Olympics and is now a security expert for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Spahn will join the center full-time in September after overseeing security at this year’s Women’s World Cup in Germany.

The center is the brainchild of Mohammed Hanzab, a Royal Air Force-trained former Colonel in the Qatari Air Froce, and has been born out of the Qatar International Academy for Security Studies.

"The message from Qatar is that we want to contribute. We are used to organising big international events here in Doha,” Inside the Games quoted Hanzab as saying.

The center hopes to be involved in security in the build-up to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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