No Booze in the Stadiums, and Other Euro ‘08 Security Precautions

• In Austria, police officers are putting on their riot gear and pelting each other with fake firebombs and tennis balls so they can get a feel for what it’s like to be under fire from rioting fans. Just in case.

•The Swiss have budgeted $61 million for security costs.

•Germany vs. Poland and Germany vs. Croatia have been assigned “red status,” meaning that security considers them high risk games for hooliganism and possible violence. Security will be high at both games.

•In Vienna, they’ve chopped down trees near the stadium “to make sure rowdy fans don’t climb the trees or use them as staging points for throwing bottles and rocks.”

•Several Austrian cities are moving garden-variety prisoners to others towns to make room for soccer hooligans. And they’ve specially trained 2000 commandos in hoolie management.

•Both countries will be importing German and French police officers.

•15,000 Swiss troops will be on call, just in case.

•And perhaps most important, UEFA has imposed a blanked ban of alcohol sales in all stadiums.

These are just a few of the steps Austria and Switzerland are taking to get ready for the security needs of Euro 2008.

A few other fun security-related tidbits?

All of the non-host countries will have “specialist officers” assigned to travel with visiting fans and watch for trouble.

A special light, lower-alcohol “fan beer” has been created for the occasion by Austrian brewer Ottakringer for the occasion.

And this beer will be served only in plastic cups, which don’t make great projectiles.

But the story isn’t all about police trying to spoile the fun. During World Cup 2006 in Germany, they discovered that having big-screen fanzones actually decreased the violence outside the stadiums because it kept ticketless fans from getting up to no good. So the games will be available on big screens in multiple venues.

But as they learned in this week’s UEFA Cup final, they’d better make sure the TVs actually work.