Czech officers reflect on experience of policing at World Cup

Thirty-two teams were in action at the World Cup in Germany, accompanied by millions of fans. Keeping an eye on them were the German police and officers from many other participating nations, including the Czech Republic. Some of the Czech police officers at the World Cup are what are called "spotters" - in plain clothing, they monitored potentially troublesome fans, who they know from the domestic football league. Pavel Reich, an expert on extremism in the Czech Republic, was among them.

Photo: Lothar Martin

"Football hooligans belong to the ranks of extremists - many of them are far-right radicals. Us spotters have been working in this field for a long time - we know them individually and they know us too. One of our tasks is prevention, and these guys are less likely to fight or cause trouble when they see us. One nice thing was that many ordinary fans recognised us in Germany too, and they said they were happy to see us."

Anti-hooligan police officer Pavel Reich said he was sorry to see the Czech Republic go out in the group stage, partly because that also meant an early exit for him and his colleagues. But, he says, his team were honoured by an unusual invitation.

Photo: Lothar Martin

"We were the only other police force to be invited to Dortmund for the game between Germany and Poland, which was nice. Our German colleagues told us it was the biggest single police operation in the country's modern history. We were invited partly because Czech is relatively similar to Polish, but mostly because there are close ties between hooligans from the two countries, especially in north Moravia and southern Poland."

In the end over 400 arrests were made during fighting after the Germany-Poland game.

Photo: Lothar Martin

But World Cup policing wasn't just about containing hooligans. Uniformed Czech officers - around 20 in all - were also on hand to do more mundane work, such as policing international trains. One of them was Major Jiri Fencl.

"The atmosphere was really friendly, partly because Czech fans were surprised to see Czech police in uniform on trains - some even had their photos taken with us. We asked them whether they had tickets or not, and warned them that buying tickets from touts was illegal. We advised them to try the official Fifa meeting points, and if they couldn't get tickets to watch matches on big screens, which were free."

Jiri Fencl was speaking at a news conference on Tuesday. Also there was Czech police president Vladislav Husak - he praised his officers' work in Germany and said the World Cup in Germany had been one of the safest ever.