Serbia signed the Convention on Safety at Football Matches

As it is stated, the Convention was signed by the Permanent Representative of Serbia to the Council of Europe, Aleksandra Đurović, in the presence of the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Bjørn Berge.

The purpose of the Convention is to ensure that football and other sporting events provide a safe and pleasant environment for all individuals through the application of an integrated approach to safety, security and services at sporting events by multiple actors working in partnership.

This document, which was opened for signing in July 2016, was signed by 36 member states of the Council of Europe, and 20 of them also ratified it.

The Convention obliges authorities of the signatory states to encourage public agencies and private stakeholders – local authorities, police, football clubs and national federations and fans – to work together to prepare and host football matches, to create a welcoming atmosphere in and out of stadiums.

It is also necessary to ensure that the stadium infrastructure complies with national and international standards and regulations for safety and efficient crowd management, as well as to have contingency plans that must be tested and improved during regular joint exercises.

At the same time, the authorities must ensure that spectators feel welcome and treated well during the event, and they must make stadiums more accessible to children, the elderly and people with special needs.

A series of measures for the prevention and punishment of violence must also be adopted, which include bans on entering stadiums, as well as sanctioning procedures in the country where the offense was committed, i.e. in the country of residence or citizenship of the offender.

Measures to restrict travel abroad to football events are also envisaged.

The Council of Europe states that the signatory states to the Convention also undertake to strengthen international police cooperation by designating a national football information point within the police force (NFIP), in order to facilitate the exchange of information and personal data related to international football matches.

This convention, as it is stated, should eventually replace the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events and in particular at Football Matches (ETS No. 120), which entered into force in 1985, after the tragedy at the "Heysel" stadium in Belgium.

Source: Tanjug