Sports as a purpose of international terrorism

Abstract

Violence exercised for political purposes transcends national interests very clearly. The opportunism and the desire to obtain a great media repercussion make the sportive objectives are key to launch warnings, threats, sow panic and make the message that is intended to reach the whole world. Sport has been a victim on numerous occasions of these violent acts.

This work aims to make a historical journey from the attacks of Munich’72 to the attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, trying to determine how terrorists who attempt against sports interests usually act alone (or in small groups) and how the ideological reasons behind each attack are radically different. From the incidents of September 11, 2001 will demonstrate how attacks against sporting goals have multiplied, as to attack against densely populated sports spaces makes the attacks much more profitable: there is a greater number of victims and a great coverage is obtained by part of the media that cover the event. Finally, it will be analyzed how the threat of a terrorist attack against a sport-related objective has led to greater governmental cooperation and the creation of multinational security networks.