Tinaye Agere
Zimpapers Sports Hub
CAF head of security Christian Emeruwa has urged Zimbabwean football authorities to do away with the tradition of employing bouncers when managing safety and security at football stadiums.
Emeruwa, who was in the country last week, and was accompanied by FIFA senior manager, safety and security, Kate Steinberg, said bouncers must be replaced with trained security officers to manage or minimise incidents and curb disasters.
FIFA and CAF trained 40 security officers in the country last week during the Safe Stadium Initiative Workshop.
On several occasions, the continental security chief stressed bouncers were no longer welcome in match day organisation, as they were more likely to cause harm by using unreasonable force. Zimbabwe are the second country in Africa to hold a stadium security and safety workshop.
Participants included security personnel from football clubs and other interested stakeholders.
“It’s not about the muscles. It’s about planning and implementing what has been taught in the CAF modules. You need to be an expert,” said Emeruwa.
“You must be ready to learn because safety and security is no longer as it used to be. It requires a lot of planning and learning. So, we want to encourage you to continue learning.
“The essence of this whole exercise is simply to make sure that people do not die in our stadiums. This is the major reason we had to gather here and today. Zimbabwe have 40 experts that have been trained in stadium security.
“I call them experts because we are convinced about the modules that we have delivered and we have faith that, if these modules are implemented as delivered, these people would be savvy not only in Zimbabwe, but also the entire Southern Hemisphere, which we have in COSAFA.”
From the modules delivered by experts, who included Xolile Nokuthula Vilakati from Egypt and Ugandan Abdul Lukooya Sekabira, Zimbabwean authorities were also reminded that proper stadium infrastructure plays an important part in implementing security controls.
The country does not have a stadium that meets the minimum standards expected by CAF and FIFA.
“We do understand that there are certain challenges, not limited only to Zimbabwe. It is something we see across the entire continent, which is the poor state of infrastructure in our stadiums, which, of course, calls for serious concern. Imagine, having not so good a stadium and also people managing the stadium without knowledge, then we know that we are headed for catastrophic situations,” said Emeruwa.
Some of the participants said the workshop was an eye-opener.
Zebediah Muronzi from Herentals said the era of bouncers at the club was long gone.
“It’s about organisation. That’s basically what we are going to be focusing on, making sure that in everything that we do, we are organised and that we have the rightful people in the right place.
“After this workshop, I believe the culture of bouncers is going to be a thing of the past. We want football to be safe for everyone,” he said.
Harare City’s security representative Mavis Fusire said the workshop highlighted some of the areas that had been lagging in terms of enhancing safety and security at stadiums.
“We talked about the issue of pre-ticketing as a means of controlling the crowds. Also, if you look at the issue of infrastructure, how, as security officers, we are going to implement at our stadium for ingress and egress, where people will then have to use the turnstiles and the exit gates,” she said.
“The facilitators taught us that it is not
about using force. We really need to shun the idea of using uniformed forces every time and educate our communities through the use of stewards.
“The moment we engage civilian volunteers in the control of crowds in our stadiums, we will then have zero use of minimum force or things like baton sticks and guns, especially in zone one, which is the playing area.”
Simba Bhora security chief Isah Parichi said clubs must comply with the call to ensure total security. The PSL banned bouncers in 2022, but clubs have not been compliant.
Online Reporter