England, US Iran pose World Cup security risks

NUREMBERG, Germany, Mar 16 (Reuters) Nuremberg police director Walter Ernstberger says his first thought on hearing the results of the World Cup soccer draw was that his city could look forward to hosting some exciting games.

Then came a more sobering realisation.

''Our next thought, as policemen, was security. Yes, you could say there are certain increased challenges,'' he said with careful understatement.

Terrorism and hooliganism are the overriding concerns of police throughout Germany ahead of the World Cup, which starts on June 9 and runs for a month in 12 cities.

But Nuremberg faces some of the biggest potential security headaches of the 64-match event.

The English team, with its huge army of travelling fans and their reputation for troublemaking, comes to town on June 15 to play against Trinidad and Tobago. The United States will face Ghana in Nuremberg a week later.

Of the 32 teams competing, England and the United States are seen as among the top potential terrorist targets -- Britain and the United States are high on al Qaeda's list of enemies.

Before those two matches, Mexico will face Iran, also seen as politically sensitive, in the medieval city. Nuremberg will host one more group match, Japan versus Croatia, and one of the last-16 matches.

COMPLEX TASK With less than three months until kick-off, preparations are gathering pace across Germany to guarantee security at one of the biggest events in sport -- a task made more complex by the German federal system in which each of the 16 states has its own intelligence service and police force.

Two of the host cities, Hamburg and Berlin, staged drills this month in which hundreds of police and emergency workers rehearsed for a variety of disasters, from riots to explosions.

At the Berlin Interior Ministry, a special World Cup security unit has been gathering information for months from dozens of countries, much of it relating to the estimated 1.5 million foreign fans expected to travel to Germany.

Some 280 security experts from 40 countries will attend a last big planning session in Berlin at the end of this month.

In Nuremberg, Mayor Ulrich Maly insists he has no major worries about security. ''We welcome every fan, wherever he comes from.

We're not afraid of British, Mexican or Croatian passion.'' Police director Ernstberger says diplomatically that he hopes the England fans will ''pleasantly surprise us'', but makes clear his men will not put up with any violence.

''If there are small disturbances like noisy celebrations, we think something like that should be tolerated at a World Cup,'' he told Reuters in an interview.

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