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21 ESLJ 1 (2023)

handle is hein.journals/entersport21 and id is 1 raw text is: Byrne, S and Ludvigsen, JAL. 2023. The Duty of Engagement: An Analysis of the 2016 European Convention on an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach SPOR IT ' A JOURNAL at Football Matches and Other Events. Entertainment and Sports Law Journal, 21(1): 1, pp.1-12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16997/esl.1410 ARTICLE The Duty of Engagement: An Analysis of the 2016 European Convention on an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football Matches and Other Events Seamus Byrne' and Jan Andre Lee Ludvigsen2 Leeds Law School, Leeds Beckett University, GB School of Humanities and Social Science, Liverpool John Moores University, GB Corresponding author: Seamus Byrne (S.D.Byrne@leedsbeckett.ac.uk) Safety and security concerns in the context of sporting events and, in particularfootball, have existed for decades. This has led to responses from individual countries as well as on a supranational level through, for example, the Council of Europe (CoE) conventions. In this article, we critically analyse the CoE's2016 Convention on an Integrated Safety, Security and Service Approach at Football Matches and Other Sports Events (CETS, No.218). Hitherto, few analyses have concentrated on the scope and impacts of the Con- vention. Thus, this article first asks how contracting states should implement Article 8 of theConvention which enshrines a duty of engagement. Second, it questions how theConvention plays into the wider embrace of human rights in contemporary sport settings. The unfolding argument is that the Convention has been comparably under-researched within the literature on both human rights and sport mega-events and football-related legal analyses. Moreover, we argue that the Convention contains much potential for driving forward a more visible engagement with human rights law within a sporting context. In particular, Article 8, which enshrines a duty of engagement has the potential to foster a robust and transformative human rights compliant culture within the context of sport. Keywords: football-related violence; security; safety; human rights; sport Introduction In their independent report into football fans' experiences of the crowd troubles and chaos that unfolded outside Stade De France for the May 2022 Champions League final in Paris between Liverpool and Real Madrid, Scraton et al. (2022) provide a powerful description of the heavy-handed policing approaches that were deployed against fans in what clearly appeared to be the shocking manifestation of a complete breakdown of fans' rights to basic safety and security at this particular sporting event. They noted that: Without provocation, riot police tear gassed fans standing in static queues. Fans were assaulted and robbed by local youths who then, without tickets and with the collusion of stewards, gained entry into the stadium. At the end of the match fans were herded from the stadium, again attacked by gangs and tear-gassed by police (Scraton et al. 2022: 8). In many ways, these remarks symbolise the position which many governments and authorities adhere to, which holds that football fans represent a social group representing a threat to the social and public order (Tsoukala et al. 2016). As scholars have demonstrated, this is a position that has often had a serious impact on fans' basic civil and human rights (Pearson 2012; Spaaij 2013; Stott & Pearson 2006; Tsoukala 2009). In the wider context, concerns around safety and security, such as those that transpired at and emanated from the 2022 Champions League final, have long existed and continued to emerge in the context of modern-day sporting events in Europe. Since the 1980s, this has also led to responses from European institutions and organizations, who have sought to combat issues stemming from poor stadium standards, crowd disorder, hooliganism, and other threat typologies typically associated with sporting events (Tsoukala 2009a). Indeed, following the events in Paris in May 2022, which culminated in the publication of the men- tioned independent report, it was succinctly posited by the independent experts, whether, in the context of spectator

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