Summer of sporting risk kicks off this week

London

THIS Friday sees the kick-off of the European Football Championships, the world's third biggest sporting event, followed hot on the heels by the opening of the Rio Olympics in August. While hosting such major contests still commands national prestige, both events have been plagued by political and wider risks and controversies underlining the potentially massive challenges associated with such tournaments, not least given the huge operating costs associated with running them and maintaining security.

Take the European Football Championships (Euro 2016), awarded to France to great fanfare in 2010 by UEFA, but which now takes place in a country operating under an official state of emergency following the tragic terrorist attacks in Paris last year. Only last month, the US State Department issued a warning that the event could be a target for further terrorist atrocities, only the third time in some 20 years that such cautionary advice has been issued by the US government for European travel.