Pledge to prevent an atrocity at Euro 2020
from DARREN LEWIS in Bucharest FOOTIE bosses have vowed that Wembley will be surrounded by a ring of steel during Euro 2020 following Friday’s terror attack.
But UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin has warned that fan zones will be far more challenging to police.
Wembley and Hampden Park in Glasgow will host the tournament, being held across Europe in the summer.
Mr Ceferin was in Bucharest at the weekend for the Euro 2020 draw and said he was horrified by the London Bridge atrocity in which two died.
He said: “I was in my hotel room. We finished the meeting. I went to my room, I looked on my laptop and it was there. I saw the footage from the person who recorded it with their mobile – it was scary. In London, it was the second time.
“On the bridge, with a knife. It’s impossible to protect big cities. You have a backpack and you go.
“We should protect the stadiums as much as we can. We scan, we check – I don’t think it’s easy to smuggle something in. But fans zones are a problem, people walking around streets.”
London Bridge attacker Usman Khan, 28, was shot dead by police after killing Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, and injuring three others.
Mr Ceferin added: “You saw in London. Anything can happen. It is not about the Euros. It’s about any event in this crazy world these days.
“But my first Champions League finals were in Cardiff and we were concerned about security because it was just after the Manchester [bombing] and the police said, ‘The stadium is the safest place in the UK at the moment.’
“So we are doing as much as we can. It’s not easy to smuggle something in.”
THE devastated girlfriend of London Bridge terror attack victim Jack Merritt collapsed in tears at a vigil.
Clutching a soft toy, Leanne O’Brien was overcome with emotion as crowds in Cambridge held a minute’s silence. The veterinary science student held hands with Jack’s mum Anne and dad David, and she was supported by her own parents, Jeff and Mac.
Jack, 25, and fellow Cambridge graduate Saskia Jones, 23, were stabbed to death by Usman Khan at a prisoner rehabilitation event at London’s Fishmongers’ Hall on Friday.
Local MP Daniel Zeichner said: “This is a real tragedy for our city.”
At a separate tribute at Guildhall Yard in London, attended by Prime Minister
Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, London Mayor Sadiq Khan called for people to work for a future “not defined by hatred but by unity”.
He added: “The best way to defeat hatred is by focusing on the values that bind us.’’