Record security presence for Champions League final in Madrid, Latest Football News - The New Paper
Football

Record security presence for Champions League final in Madrid

Madrid will deploy an unprecedented number of police and security personnel for Sunday morning's (Singapore time) all-English Champions League final, and use a drone for the first time to monitor fan activity.

With Spain's terror alert set at its second-highest level, Spanish authorities have also banned trucks weighing over 3.5 tonnes from driving near the Wanda Metropolitano stadium, which will host the match between Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.

Trucks will also be barred from the vicinity of the two fan zones in the city centre.

"We will have a very, very robust security apparatus in place to try to ensure everything takes place normally and everyone can enjoy (the match)," the director general of Spain's National Police, Francisco Pardo, told a news conference yesterday to outline the security measures for the game.

Some 4,700 police officers and private security guards will be deployed for the match, more than the nearly 4,000 used for last year's Copa Libertadores final between Argentine rivals River Plate and Boca Juniors in Madrid, a match that was also declared "high risk" by authorities.

"This will probably be the biggest deployment to guarantee security which we will carry out at a sporting event in Madrid," said Pardo.

Police will for the first time deploy a drone to provide aerial monitoring to prevent fan trouble at a sporting event, which will work in coordination with police helicopters, he added.

The authorities expect around 32,000 ticket-holding fans from both teams will attend the match at the 68,000-capacity stadium, and thousands more to come to Madrid without a ticket from Britain, as well as southern Spain and neighbouring Portugal, which have large English expat communities.

British police are sharing intelligence with their Spanish counterparts and will be in Madrid to assist in the security operation. - AFP

Football