Manchester United News Update: Team's Game With Bournemouth Game Cancelled Due To Bomb Threat Fiasco
Security Search Management & Solutions Ltd (SSMS), a British security and consultancy firm, is currently under fire for a lapse in security training protocol that lead to the cancellation of Manchester United-Bournemouth game due to fake bomb threat fiasco inside Old Trafford.
The embarrassing game cancellation could cost a potentially a $5-million bill to the world's richest and most conspicuous soccer club raising controversies surrounding the apparent breach in security arrangements right at heart of the UK's biggest sports teams.
The whole fiasco was also a stark reminder of how vulnerable sports events can be as the world gears up for prestigious sporting events like the European Championship in France and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The recent terrorist attacks in the heartland of Europe (e.g. 2015 Paris attacks and this year's Brussels bombing) underscore the need for vigilance amid heightening tensions brought by ISIS-inspired radicalism according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Manchester United took precautionary measures by calling in the authorities and evacuating the entire 75,000-seat stadium packed with eager soccer fans when a suspicious-looking mobile phone was found taped inside the bathroom cubicle by one of United staff.
After a thorough bomb-clearing operation by UK's bomb-disposal experts, the 'incredibly lifelike' explosive device was disclosed as an item used by a security firm following a bomb scenario training exercise.
"Fiasco is the right word. It was shambolic," Manchester Mayor Tony Lloyd said as quoted by CBC News Canada. "Of course, United are a huge organization. It wasn't, I think, the fact they're the world's richest club, it was the fact that the security had missed something that in the end ought to have been found."
Meanwhile, the head of the said private security firm Security Search Management & Solutions, Chris Reid, issued an apology and took full responsibility after the unintended fake pipe bomb incident caused the game to be cancelled.
"This mistake is entirely mine. I have to take full responsibility for leaving a training item behind on Wednesday. I am absolutely devastated that a lapse in my working protocols has resulted in many people being disappointed, frightened and inconvenienced. Nothing I can say will rectify that," remarked an emotional Reid as he spoke to the media outside his home as quoted by ABC News.
