An Garda Síochána has borrowed a water cannon from Northern Ireland as part of a major policing operation to help with crowd control at the Europa League Final amid concerns of “violent fans” travelling to the game.
More than 3,000 Gardaí, including the Public Order Unit, will be deployed to the clash between the newly-crowned Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen and Italy’s Atalanta. They will be backed up by a mobile water cannon which has been borrowed from the PSNI, the Northern Irish police. The water cannon is one which was previously borrowed by the Gardaí last November during the Dublin riots.
The Gardaí at the final at the Aviva stadium will be armed with more mobile riot shields and larger pepper spray, with the policing force having evolved their crown control measures following recent riots in Dublin, the Irish Times have reported. The matchup between Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen and Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta underdogs was considered to be a low-risk matchup in the final.
The Europa League Final is set to take place at 8pm on Wednesday, with Irish Rail warning of disruptions to usual service as fans of Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen fill the Aviva Stadium at Lansdowne Road. The Lansdowne Road DART station will be closed to assist the Gardaí with crowd and traffic management.
RTÉ has reported that German and Italian policing authorities have “liaised” with the Gardaí on the possibility of violent fans travelling to Dublin for the game.
Europa League Final: 'The Gardaí, really, are just background music'
Former Assistant Garda Commissioner for Dublin, Patrick Leahy said to RTÉ that he “wouldn’t expect anything out of the ordinary” to happen at the match but noted that, “based on research in the past, particularly with hooliganism in the 80s” a strategy for crowd control at football events across Europe had been developed.
“If we create a welcoming environment for the supporters to come to, they will pop in and out in a day, they’ll enjoy the event and they will go home, but you do have to have the resources in the background just in case.”
“The Gardaí, really, are just background music for [the event]. It’ll be shaking hands and smiles all around, they certainly won’t be provoking any response here.”
Fans of the two Europa League finalists will be separated before kick-off, with the two team’s supporters being organised to meet up in two different locations across Dublin, with Leverkusen’s fans meeting at the Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium and the RDS facilitating Atalanta supporters.
Gardaí will escort the two fan groups to the Aviva Stadium where they will go through “additional security checks” to access the stadium.
Speaking to Balls.ie, a spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said that “ahead of a number of planned policing operations in the Dublin Region” the Irish Policing service made “a mutual assistance request for water cannon” to the PSNI.
An Garda Síochána said Gardaí had been trained in its use and that “water cannons are an available tactic to Public Order Operational Commanders” for crowd control.
