International Centre for Sport Security Announces Research Agreement with Institute for Fan Culture
International Centre for Sport Security Announces Research Agreement with Institute for Fan Culture
February 2, 2012 
The International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), the not-for-profit sport security organization based in Doha, has announced today a new collaboration with the Institute for Fan Culture (IfF) in Germany, the new academic institution led by Prof. Dr. Harald Lange (Dept. of Sport Science at the Julius Maximilian University Würzburg) and co-founder Dr. Phil. Martin Thein.
The Institute for Fan Culture (IfF) has been created to explore the psychology and behaviour of sports fans around the world and brings together leading academics from the field of sociology, political science, criminology and social psychology, as well as sport, to research the causes of fan violence, extremism and hooliganism in sport today.
The new venture is part of the ICSS’s ongoing work to develop and share knowledge within the field of sport security and will actively involve fans from a variety of social groups, as well as leading sporting organisation’s and security experts, to determine why fans exhibit extreme behaviour within a sporting environment.
Speaking of the new collaboration, Mohammed Hanzab, President of the ICSS, said: “This new project is another step towards the ICSS’s goal of becoming a global hub for sport security expertise and I look forward to working with the team at the IfF and the University of Würzburg in the coming months.
“With the spotlight falling on a number of fan-related incidents recently, this research will provide an important step in understanding sports fans around the world and what influence politics and society have on their behaviour today.”
Helmut Spahn, Executive Director of the ICSS, added: “This topic will be explored further as part of the Hosting Safe and Secure Sporting Events in New and Emerging Nations panel at the 2nd International Sport Security Conference, taking place in Doha on the 14th and 15th March 2012, and I encourage all major event organisers to attend for what I am sure will be an engaging discussion on the future of the major sporting events industry.”