The 1st National Football Policing Training Seminar  organised within the CoE/EU joint project ProS4+ took place in Sofia (Bulgaria) from 17-19 October 2017. The aim of the training has been to promote the standards enshrined under the Council of Europe new Convention on safety and security at sports events (CETS 218), the adoption of an integrated approach to safety, security and service in connection with football matches, and provide training to key policing football decision makers and practitioners.

The training focused on, on one hand,  the established good practices enshrined in the new Convention (CETS 218), and other European standards on policing football, both inside and outside of stadia; and on the other hand, developing and implementing football policing strategies, tactics and operations that are consistent and demonstrate compliance with the Council of Europe and other European standards.

The training seminar was unique in that it was delivered in Bulgarian and customised to meet national needs and circumstances. The training materials, which also included video footages, were either in Bulgarian or were edited with Bulgarian subtitles.

The event was opened by the Bulgarian Deputy Minister of Interior Mr Stefan Balabanov and was attended by around 50 participants including senior decision makers, National Football Information Points (NFIPs) personnel, spotters, police match commanders, and police academy trainers in Bulgaria.

A news for the seminar was also publish on the web portal of the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior:  http://bit.ly/2jEgamd