Local agencies team up for international football

With a host of international football matches on the horizon, the Gibraltar Football Association, Gibraltar Sports and Leisure Authority and Royal Gibraltar Police have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to tackle the challenges this will present.
The document was signed at a ceremony at City Hall yesterday by representatives from each organisation including the chairman of the Gibraltar Football Association, Dennis Beiso, Commissioner of Police Eddie Yome and GSLA CEO Reagan Lima.
The ceremony was overseen by the Minister for Sport, Steven Linares.
He explained that the MoU sets out how the three institutions will work together to ensure that the event is a success.
Mr Yome said: “It sets out the responsibilities of each stakeholder towards a football event.”
“I think football has moved on in leaps and bounds in to the more professional arena and as stakeholders we’ve got to step up to that mark and set out the responsibilities that each agency has to be able to have a successful and a safe event.”
Mr Beiso added that the GFA were very much looking forward to hosting safe and secure football matches in Gibraltar in the future.
On behalf of the GSLA, Mr Lima said the MoU is “very much a live document” and the parties are committed to reviewing it every six months.
According to a joint press release, the incorporation of the GFA as a member of UEFA, and latterly FIFA, poses new challenges to the policing, organisation and provision of sporting facilities for international football matches.
The purpose of the MoU is therefore to establish a mutual framework for cooperation amongst the three parties.
This MoU seeks to formalize avenues for the coordination of measures required to ensure the safety of those participating or attending matches and mitigating the risk of public disorder.
Additionally it seeks to facilitate communication and information sharing amongst all parties by setting up a structure under which representatives of all signatory parties meet on a regular basis and risk assess and categorise upcoming fixtures.
The MoU also sets out individual organisations’ responsibilities and commitments from all signatories to support each other and work in conjunction towards establishing crime reduction and awareness strategies.
The parties will also support each other in training and/or education programmes which are considered to have a positive impact on how football events are managed.
The signing embodies the parties’ common goal to generate an environment that is safe to the general public, those participating and attending football events and that promotes the enjoyment of the game.