“If there was more there we could try and reduce the risk and make it a bit easier for everyone, but it is what it is and we’ll clearly do the best we can with the resources we deploy.
“In Germany we sent 40, because that was the ask of the Germans and they funded it.
“In this case the Americans are not are sold on the idea of the mobile delegations. They’re not funding it, so it’ll be a smaller deployment.
“We’re not criticising that, it’s their operation, they’ll police it. We see the benefit of spotters, as I think most of the European countries do, because it gives us the opportunity to have a greater coverage of really good experienced people who will liaise with the supporters and the FA.
“But if we want to monitor fans leaving the city centre and then be there to receive them at the ground, you can’t be in two places at once. So it limits our ability to do that.”
Roberts added that the UK police delegation at each match would ideally include two officers at the stadium, two in the city centre and two in transport hubs – with six to ten deemed to be the ideal number on the ground.
The White House World Cup Taskforce has been approached for comment.
“We know fan behaviour. The States isn’t necessarily a football fan culture in the same way. It’s very different’, said Roberts.
“There are 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the US, so they will have had different exposure to crowds managing things.
“The behaviour of our fans in tournaments over recent years has been pretty well exemplary, so we start from a good place. I think one of the key reasons we’re so keen to send a team out there is that it gives us the opportunity to brief local law enforcement.
“So we always like to be there to communicate to fans if their behaviour is causing offence. Equally to say to local law enforcement, ‘this isn’t a problem. This is normal behaviour’. So we’re going to be more limited in that.”
