Why clubs that start the season well, need to be sure they can keep up the pace
Beware the world cup and all its build up
By Tony Attwood
During the course of today, 25 February, a statement was released in the United States by a significant number of government officials and their departments which stated that the world cup in the USA has become chaotic because of the fact that President Trump has frozen the funding intended for the cities that are hosting the world cup this summer.
According to a BBC report the funding was promised to almost a dozen cities totaling around £650m to get the stadia and local areas ready for the WC. However disputes have broken out between the president of the United States and the 11 host cities and the withholding of funds is a move by the President in this dispute with the cities. As a resultsecurity preparations are now way behind schedule.
In a recent statement the chief operating officer of the Miami World Cup Host Committee, said that if everything was not resolved in a month, events will be cancelled. The argument is that without the money actually being received by Miami (rather than simply promised) the work on the upgrades cannot be started. The WC itself starts on11 June withUSA facing Paraguay in Los Angeles on 13 June being the first of a series of games that are held in the USA. Others are held in Mexico and Canada.
$625m is supposedly earmarked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency within the Department of Homeland Security in order to pay for the World Cup in the United States, enablingcities that are hosting matches to “carry out the extensive security activities required to protect players, staff, attendees, venues and critical infrastructure across the host cities, strengthening them against potential terrorist attacks”.
According to the latest reports a further $250m was then granted to enable the venues and their surrounding areas to “strengthen their ability to detect, identify, track, or mitigate unmanned aircraft systems.”
Reports suggest that the Boston’s Gillette Stadium in Boston will host seven games but the local authority has said that without the funding it will pull out of the events.
About one third of a billion pounds has been promised to the host cities in the United States, but apparently none of it has yet been received by the stadia that need it. As a result of the lack of funding theHomeland Security Committee has announced that work in preparing the grounds and surrounding areas with the extra security deemed necessary has not taken place, with only just over 100 days left before the opening of the programme of games.
The first game in the United States is a match againstParaguay in Los Angeles on 13 June. The idea seems to have been that around$625m would be given by central government to cities hosting matches so that they could develop security for players and staff, and improve the infrastructure of the venues and the host cities.
The possibility of terrorist attacks has been mentioned in preliminary documents as one of the things that the cities have to prepare against and as a result of this thought the amount of money being given by the government to the cities has itself increased with particular reference to watching out for and knocking out drones…”
However, since funding has been frozen, the Kansas City deputy chief of police Joseph Mabin said his department does not have enough staff to cover the city’s security needs.
The Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Boston, is scheduled to host seven matches, but town officials have reportedly statement that it may pull out of hosting games unless it receives the funding.
England play Croatia in Dallas on 17 June, Ghana in Boston on 23 June and Panama in New York on 27 June.
Scotland play Haiti and Morocco in Boston on 14 and 19 June respectively before facing Brazil in Miami.
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Why clubs that start the season well, need to be sure they can keep up the pace
Beware the world cup and all its build up