Euro 2008 Stadium Security

As the result of a tendering process, ARGE EURO 2008, an association of five Austrian security companies, was awarded the contract for implementation of security services in the four Austrian EURO stadiums. 20 companies took part in the tendering process.

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Together with Vienna International Airport Security Service GmbH (VIAS) the four security companies organized within the Austrian Association of Security Corporations (VSÖ) – G4S Security Service AG (G4S), Österreichischer Wachdienst GmbH & Co KG (ÖWD), Securitas Sicherheitsdienstleistungen GmbH and Siwacht Bewachungsdienst GmbH –jointly looked after security in the stadiums at UEFA EURO 2008TM.

The chair of ARGE is Martin Wiesinger, who as the CEO has for seven years headed Securitas Sicherheitsdienstleistungen GmbH.

Efficiency

G4S, ÖWD, Securitas and Siwacht together have over 6,500 permanent security staff, thereby covering about 65 percent of Austria's total security market requirement. It is already a number of years ago that the VSÖ companies drew up a joint quality standard, and they exclusively use staff who have been trained accordingly. The companies are audited annually by the Austrian Certification Authority for Security Systems (ÖZS), allowing adherence to the relevant VSÖ guidelines to be checked. Vienna International Airport Security Service GmbH has a further 1,000 staff, trained in accordance with the conditions of the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Interior (BMI).

Numbers of staff deployed

A total of around 3,800 staff were deployed by ARGE Stadium Security at EURO 2008. About 1,500 of them were permanently employed by the ARGE partners as security staff or are experienced security officers. A further 900 were provided through increased staffing in the field of permanently employed security staff. The ARGE partners finally took on 1,400 employees specifically for the EURO Games, and trained them accordingly.

Stadium security

ARGE Partner were already taking care of the four EURO stadiums Vienna (Securitas), Salzburg (Securitas), Klagenfurt (G4S) and Innsbruck (ÖWD), thus there was an excellent basis for provision of the extensive security and stewarding services for the EURO events.

Training

All the employees deployed at EURO 2008 – both existing and newly employed staff –underwent a one- (service-oriented posts) to two-day (security-oriented posts) training program. In around 120 training sessions, and adhering to the strictest small-group principle (25-30 participants maximum), all the employees were trained in special topics such as FIFA/UEFA security guidelines, professional practice, conflict management and de escalation strategies.

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