UEFA Europa League Finals in Basel
Liverpool FC vs. FC Sevilla promised a lot of spectacle in this year’s UEFA Europa League finals. Both teams are famous for their attractive football and incredibly passionate supporters, who follow their idols all over Europe. Thousands of fans were expected in Basel, Switzerland, on May 18th to turn the stadium and the whole city into a football frenzy. It was an extraordinary event that demanded extraordinary planning and management.
Situation Management
Special events and situations like this often require a lot of personnel, specialized equipment, and vehicles from different agencies and organizations. Critical infrastructure has to be prepared and monitored during the event. It is essential to anticipate, define measures, and decisions for all relevant scenarios in advance of the event, which is an immensely difficult undertaking fora police organization.
Precisely for these kinds of situations, the Basel Canton Police have recently implemented Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure’s emergency management software Intergraph Planning & Response (IPR), and with a very enthusiastic and innovative spirit at that. Willing to adapt their processes to the system and eager to exploit every feature of the solution, they have efficiently pulled through the project and built up remarkable expertise.
According to Basel Canton Police’s Master Sergeant Richard Altermatt, “the overview on all personnel, GPS-tracked and visualized on a map combined with the journal to manage tasks and to log virtually everything that happens is an invaluable tactical asset during an event. The fact that you can prepare different scenarios, anticipate the necessary decisions to be made and plan personnel and units accordingly takes a lot of pressure from the commanders during the event.”
With the Europa League Finals in Basel, the project reached its culmination. The Basel Canton Police set up an event plan with a detailed illustration of the stadium, public viewing areas, possible marching routes, and team hotels. They included 1500 first responders from all over Switzerland and Germany, 110 GPS-tracked units and eight different scenarios into the event plan in IPR.
“The situation in IPR was managed around the clock for three days. By using the time filters, the head of operations had an overview on the available personnel and units at all times. IPR excellently supported and accompanied us and our processes during this extraordinary event. We are excited about the potential IPR offers to plan and manage emergency situations in the future”, Richard Altermatt summarizes, visibly pleased by the outcome.
A Glimpse Into the Future
The mission was a success. It highlighted the enormous relief for all involved stakeholders and at the same time showed potential to optimize the use of IPR even more. We are proud to have been able to contribute to the safety of such an event and are looking forward to working together with an organization like Basel Canton Police to bring situation management with IPR to the next level.
