Islamic State have called for an attack on Champions League quarter final games ahead of Arsenal’s tie against Bayern Munich in North London tonight. It comes after four men, allegedly from Islamic State-Khorosan group, armed themselves with assault weapons and massacred 143 civilians at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on March 22, the deadliest attack in Russia for two decades.
The atrocity was reminiscent of some of the worst acts of terrorism in Europe, including the attack on the Bataclan in Paris in November 2015. In the days after the attack in Moscow, Islamic State (IS) affiliated media al-Battar issued a threatening poster with a hooded man looking at screens showing Paris, London, Madrid, and Rome, with the caption ‘After Moscow, who is next?’.
Now other pro-IS media has circulated posters calling for an attack on football games across Europe, including the Emirates stadium where Arsenal are set to play Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League quarter finals at 8pm (Tuesday, April 9). One poster, from al-Azaim, shows a masked man holding an AK-47 set against four football stadiums, with the caption ‘Kill them all’.
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Another poster, from Sarh al-Khilafah, shows a photo of the Emirates with blood splatters and the Arabic caption ‘My united brother. Target the unbelievers at the three entrances’. Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, a terrorist monitoring group, said the poster was ‘inciting radical Islamists to attack the Emirates’ in a post on X.
One post by unofficial IS media has also called for a direct attack on the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid where last year’s winners Manchester City are due to play Real Madrid this evening. The poster, reported by TRAC, says ‘A very valuable target awaits you. Disrupt their gatherings, Distract their security with IEDs and decoy devices and advance towards your main goal steadily’.
After a similar threat on March 30, police in Munich said they had stepped up security ahead of Bayern’s home game against rivals Borussia Dortmund at the Allianz Arena. Responding to a threatening poster, published by the dpa news agency, Munich police chief Sven Müller said there was ‘no concrete threat’ but they had boosted their presence around the game, reports The Washington Post.
UEFA ‘aware of alleged terrorist threats’
MI5 say the current threat to the UK from all forms of terrorism is ‘Substantial’ – which means an attack is likely. In January, Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Matt Jukes told reporters he had seen an ‘unprecedented’ rise in the threat from terrorism following the conflict in Gaza, with a 25 per cent increasing in intelligence coming to counter-terrorism police.
“It’s hard to remember a more unstable, dangerous and uncertain world. I have not seen the conditions collide in the way we have in the last months during my tenure,” AC Jukes said. The Met Police chief also said the MI5-run Joint Analysis Terrorism Centre was continuing to review all information to assess the current threat level.
A spokesperson for UEFA, European football’s governing body, said: “UEFA is aware of alleged terrorist threats made towards this week’s UEFA Champions League matches and is closely liaising with the authorities at the respective venues. All matches are planned to go ahead as scheduled with appropriate security arrangements in place.”
The Metropolitan Police and Arsenal Football Club has been approached for comment.
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