Risk Assessment for Argentina's Football World Cup 2018 Participation

This report analyzes the potential risks facing the Argentina national football team during the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. It examines various risk factors, including security threats, climatic changes, injuries, racism, and political issues. The report provides a comprehensive risk breakdown structure, assesses the impact of each risk, and offers recommendations for mitigation strategies. The analysis is based on data collected from previous tournaments, expert opinions, and relevant research.

MAN6301 - BUSINESS REPORT
Risk Assessment of the 2018 Football World Cup for the National
Football Team
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Table of Contents
Background Information..............................................................................................................................2
Executive Summary.....................................................................................................................................3
Data Collection............................................................................................................................................4
Security Risk............................................................................................................................................4
Climatic Changes.....................................................................................................................................5
Injuries.....................................................................................................................................................6
Racism.....................................................................................................................................................7
Political issues..........................................................................................................................................7
Recommendations.......................................................................................................................................9
Analysis......................................................................................................................................................10
Risk Breakdown Structure.....................................................................................................................10
Risk Impact Applied...............................................................................................................................11
Limitations.................................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................14
References.................................................................................................................................................15
Audit Trail..................................................................................................................................................16
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Background Information
This article will deal with the process of exploring risk assessment and management for Football World
Cup 2018 that is going to be held in Russia. The report aims at analyzing all the risk factors from a
qualified teams’ perspective that they can face before or during a match and a proper tested risk
management plan that can be executed to avoid the possibility of the risk and to deal if encountered
with a risk. This article records information from previous matches and world cups statistics and will be
based on the conditions and solution adopted at that time with required modification. This article will
help a participating team in dealing with any circumstance in an efficient manner as it will provide both
positive and negative impact of a risk on the team and its performance in the mega event. The success
criteria of this article can be measured on the basis of the accuracy of its data and relevant analysis and
solution plans adopted for risk management.
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Executive Summary
As the risk manager for National Football Team of Argentina, this report has been prepared to identify
all the risk factors and their positive and negative impact before the actual event and analyze them in
order to prepare risk management plan that can be used to minimize the negative impacts on the
performance of the team. The main purpose of this report is to evaluate all risk factors based on
previous research and new assumptions from Argentina team’s perspective and not the host country. It
will deal with the problems that the country and their players can face while they are in Russia for the
mega event. After the collection of necessary data, these data have been analysed to get the relevant
information based on which proper management plans have been deployed in order to get through the
risk factors.
This article has used summative approach in order to collect and analyse data that points to the risks
involved during the Argentina team visit to Russia for the tournament. It covers the risk analysis and
breakdown that will acquire the knowledge of risk’s likelihood and severity. It will identify the sub parts
of a particular risk involved to get the in-depth knowledge of all possible events that can be occurred in
a single risk factor. It will give a review to deal with the main risk factor and all its sub factors.
The main findings of this report include the various types of risks involved in such a mega event. The
risks involved are not only related to the sport but can also be related to a country’s social and political
policies. In a mega event such as Football World Cup, risk is prevalent in nature, in both preparation and
performance of a team. The objective of risk assessment and management is to predict this unforeseen
events and their impact that can lead to accident in a project.
The results of this article will be applied in different perspective to check risk management strategies in
sport events where each stakeholder has different viewpoint and concerns. It will also analyze the
similar and different factors between various participating teams and the organizing commission with
regard to risk management. It has covered the topics of security, terrorism, social factors, mental and
physical health or injuries and many other factors.
The article will add review in literature of risk management and project management of big sporting
events like World Cup. There are many researches that will guide on how to organize such events but
there are limited resources to handle these events and be responsible for successful completion of such
events. The organizing commission works on the risk management from the host country’s perspective
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that will deal with the issues that are prevailing in there but it is also important to deal risk management
from participating countries’ perspective and hence this report has been documented. Argentina has
qualified in the 32 countries that has been participating in Football World Cup 2018 and hence it is
necessary and vital for the national team to have identified risk and analyses risk management plans.
5

Data Collection
The first step in preparing this document was data collection that is relevant with the context of 2018
World Cup. The formal documents have been collected regarding the overall plan for the tour and the
procedures for health issues. These documents have been discussed with the major stakeholders to get
the in depth knowledge of the situation prevailing here and a proper planning and implementation of
these plans have been done. Risk management is the evaluation and foreseeing the events and risks that
can be financial, social, security or any other related thing and identifying procedures to tackle or avoid
these circumstances in mean time to minimize the after effects of these risks. Different stakeholders are
involved in this process and their different priorities affect the decision making process to which risk
they should give priority and what plans they adopt in risk management. After analyzing all the
documents and reports, some risks have been concluded for Argentina team (Archer, 2016).
Security Risk
There is a risk that while Argentina team will be travelling in Russia, there security can be hindered.
Russia has been an active hotspot for terrorism and a regular threats have been give from ISIS to Russia,
security of the players have been an important issue and risk that needs to be evaluated before sending
these players to the country. It is going to be the biggest challenge that has to be faced during World
Cup 2018. Russia has always been active politically hence apart from terrorist attack there are many
other factors that can be included in security risk of the team members (Rublovskis, 2013). These factors
have been discussed below in detail:
Terrorist attack or threats from ISIS- There has been a huge possibility of threats and attacks that can
create disturbance during the mega event as Russia has always been in the top countries of ISIS terror
group and it will be a great opportunity for them to attach the country at such a delicate point of time.
Political protests- Political factors always influence a country’s growth and international relations.
Russia will be having their elections by the end of 2018 and it will be great time for opposition party to
start public protests to divert their attention from world cup and hence it will benefit them in replacing
the government (Mazurova, 2016).
Personal statements released by any player- It has been very common during interviews that a player
says something that can hurt the sentiments of the host country citizens and is not acceptable by them
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which can also be offending to them. Hence it is possible that the player has to face public outburst
because of his one statement and his and his team’s security will be a concerning matter for the rest of
their time in the country.
Table 1: Breakdown of security risk
Category Concerns related to
Russian security
Concerns related to
Russian security
Concerns related to
Russian security
Sub-Category Terrorism Protests by the public Interview Statement
by the Player’s
Assessment Uncertain Uncertain Uncertain
Project Phase Entire event Entire event Entire event
Impact Extreme Extreme Extreme
External/Internal External Internal Internal
Likelihood Low Low Low
Risk Description Given above Given above Given above
Climatic Changes
When travelling to another country and continent it is important to be aware of its climatic conditions. It
also plays an important role in affecting the performance of the team. It is important that the players
are be prepared of the climatic changes that they’ll have to face in the host country and prepare their
game according to it. There are many variations in the climate of Argentina and Russia.
Argentina is a country in America where they have tropical or sub tropical climate with moderate
temperatures. However, Russia has extreme climatic conditions both in summers and winters. During
the month of June to August, Argentina has winters while Russia will be having the hot climate. The
temperature in Russia during these months normally ranges from 20-300C but if hot summer winds blew
across the country then its temperature can also rise to 350C that will be very hot. Argentina player are
not used to have such hot climate as the highest temperature they have in their country is around 20-
250C. It will be important for the players to adapt these changes and adopt a proper nutrition and health
chart to stay healthy and fit in changing climatic conditions(Ioffee, 2018).
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Table 2: Breakdown of climatic risk
Category Climatic concerns Climatic concerns Climatic concerns
Sub-Category Stress due to cold Epidemiologic Change in weather
Assessment Uncertain Uncertain Uncertain
Project Phase At the time of event Entire event Before event
Impact Poor performance of
the team
Poor performance as
the confidence level
gets low due to single
player
Team performance
would be moderate
External/Internal External External External
Prospect High Moderate Moderate
Risk Description Given above Given above Given above
Positive/ negative Negative Negative Negative
Injuries
It is significant that a player has huge possibility to get injured during the Football World Cup and now
football has been recognized with highest all cause injury rates. The injury rate of all players of all the 32
teams have been reported by the National Football League and they have been under supervision since
the teams have been qualified for the world cup. The mean game temperature has been collected by
online meteorological system for each game and the travel distance have been calculated to get an
insight of actual game scenarios and plans have been made accordingly to prepare players for this hectic
schedule.
Apart from a player being unhealthy, it is also possible that he gets injured before or during an event
that can lead to a flow of tension in the team members. It is a natural tendency that the whole team is
affected by a single player’s injury as it can be possible that the player is the soul of that team. Proper
safety measures need to be taken to avoid such misfortunes or a faster recovery program can be
adopted(Royer, Filippov(2017).
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It is also possible that a rival team player conspires against the team to get the most rated player injured
and make him out of the league. Any natural calamity can also hit Russia during the duration of world
cup that can make the situation worse and uncontrollable. It is also possible that the fans of a player
among the crowd attack the players of their rival team in aggression. Hence all the situation needs to be
keep in mind and proper strategic plans need to be made to handle these situations.
Table 3: Breakdown for Injury Risk
Category Disaster Disaster Disaster
Sub-Category Harm Natural disaster Collusion
Assessment Uncertain Uncertain Uncertain
Project Phase At the time of event Entire event Before or at the time
of event
Impact Not able to play and
motivation gets low
Poor performance Team performance
would be moderate
External/Internal External External External
Likelihood Low Low Low
Risk Description Given above Given above Given above
Positive/ negative Negative Negative Negative
Racism
Racism and caste and color discrimination has been prevailing and increasing in all the countries. When
a country hosts such a big event, it is quite possible that the opposition political parties use this as a
factor to create disturbance among the mob and it will become difficult to handle the crowd(Bennett,
2014). The factors that can be raised during this event are:
Linguistic Exploitation- The rival supporters can get abusive with a team and can comment on them and
use various platforms and methods to defame them.
Impact on tourists coming to support their team- It is common that when a team’s supporters can’t
reach the opposite team’s players they tend to blow out their aggression on that team’s fans. It is
difficult for the team fans, especially whose has come from another country, to handle these attacks
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which will also create difficulty for the team players to move freely in the town knowing about the
violent crowd.
Physical Disputes- The crowd can go physical when have contracting view on the teams they are
supporting.
Table 4: Breakdown of Discrimination Risk
Category Discrimination issue
in Russia
Discrimination issue
in Russia
Discrimination issue
in Russia
Sub-Category Abusing and
exploration verbally
Tourist supporters or
Foreign players
influence
Arguments
Assessment Uncertain Uncertain Uncertain
Project Phase Entire event Entire event Entire event
Impact Moderate Moderate Extreme
External/Internal External External External
Likelihood Low Low High
Risk Description Given above Given above Given above
Political issues
Russia has been an influential country in politics. President Vladimir Putin has topped the list of most
influential person in the world many a times and after he announce re-election for the post of president
near the end of 2018, it has come as a major threat to the world cup as more than 87% of the Russian
population has vote for Putin and shown faith in him. Hence the news of re-election may not have been
accepted by many people whole heartedly. The aftermath of election declaration can include many of
these following factors-
Violent Crowd- It is possible that the supporters of rival teams and rival parties can get into physical
violence before or during the match duration.
Illegal Protests- Party supporters can get on road to do unsanctioned protest that will create a huge
mess for the organizing commission to handle such a large amount of crowd along with the protesting
citizens.
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Demonstrating in local streets- As world cup will witness huge media coverage, it is possible that the
parties that will be electing in the 2018 elections use this as a platform to showcase their policies and
turn the crowd coming there to watch the match into its supporters (Kennedy, 2017).
Table 5: Breakdown of Political Risk
Category Consequences of the
election
Consequences of the
election
Consequences of the
election
Sub-Category Local Protest Illegal disputes Violent act
Assessment Uncertain Uncertain Uncertain
Project Phase Entire event Entire event Entire event
Impact Extreme Extreme Extreme
External/Internal External External External
Likelihood Moderate Moderate High
Risk Description Given above Given above Given above
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Recommendations
The recommendations that can be given to the national team organization to handle these risks include
many solutions based on the analysis of risk done. The first and foremost recommendation is to give the
players of team Argentina a proper nutrition and health diet that can help them in keeping their immune
system strong during the duration of game. The other recommendation given along with their diet
control is to take proper medication and advice from their physicians to get a better treatment in case
required.
The other primary recommendation is to assign a proper security team to the players except from the
security provided by the organizing committee in order to get best assurance that the players are safe
from any internal and external security threats. The players should be warned about the risks that are
prevailing in the country and should take proper security management before leaving their residential
area and to travel across the country.
The third recommendation is regarding the balance of players and the crowd’s connection. The players
should be advised to not state any conflicting statement that can lead to affect their stay in the country.
The players should be made to understand the importance of the sentiments of a citizen and should not
be the one to initiate any arguments and stay with honor in the country.
The last recommendation is regarding the control of climatic conditions. It is better to analyze the
climatic conditions before hand. The weather forecasting methods should be used to get a better
knowledge of the prevailing climatic condition in Russia at that time and the chances of hot wind striking
Russia during the months of June to August. If the normal condition are prevailing then it won’t be that
difficult for Argentina players to attend the event but in case of extreme conditions they need to be
provided with proper tests and practice to sustain in that climate and gave their best performance
despite of the extreme weather conditions. They needs to be trained for the same (Ioffe, 2018)
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Analysis
Aim and Success Criteria of Project- The project’s success criteria can be measured in its ability to cover
the aim for which it has been designed and this project successfully cover the aim by identifying all
possible risks and analyzing it to provide necessary solutions and recommendations.
Risk Breakdown Structure
The risk breakdown structure is important in getting an overall view of the risk factors that are prevailing
in the situation and hence the breakdown of all risk factors for the report based on the data collection
has been presented below (Rublovskis, 2013):
Table 6: Risk Breakdown Structure
Risk Code Factor Name Description
1. FIFA football World
Cup
FIFA football World Cup 2018 –Risk Break
Down arrangement, Russia
1.1. Discrimination issue
in Russia
Racism issues in the Russia
1.1.1 Abusing and
exploration verbally
Russian team supporters may abuse or
mistreat the Argentina team verbally.
1.1.2. Tourist supporters or
Foreign players
influence
The racism or discrimination could be happen
to the foreign players while playing in match.
1.1.3. Arguments The discrimination act sometimes transform
to physical disputes.
2.1. Disasters Some natural or drastic misfortunes.
2.1.1. Harm Player could have injury due to some
accident while playing.
2.1.2. Natural disaster Some disaster may occur like landslide,
earthquake, flood or volcano.
2.1.3. Collusion Vengeance Feeling from the opposition team.
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3.1. Climatic concerns Improper weather
3.1.1. Stress due to cold While playing players need to accept the
climatic situation at present
3.1.2. Epidemiologic Weather has a great effect on players health.
3.1.3. Change in weather During the weather change player’s need to
adjust themselves accordingly.
4.1. Consequences of the
election
Problems after the election result
4.1.1. Local Protest Protest by the opposition parties after election
result.
4.1.2. Illegal Disputes Players could have threat from the illegal
disputes.
4.1.3. Violence act The players could have high risk from
opposition party doing violent acts.
5.1. Concerns related to
Russian security
The security issues associated with Russia.
5.1.1. Terrorism Russia has threat from ISIS.
5.1.2. Protests by the
public
At the time of election public of Russia is
protesting
5.1.3. Interview Statement
by the Player’s
Some bad and offensive comments from
player’s side
Risk Impact Applied
The risk that has been identified can impact the performance of players in many ways. There are three
ways in which risk impact can be deducted (Cimbala, 2013):
Reduction
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A great team which expertise in sport medicine and nutrition can be accessed to get best level of
treatment which will eventually help in reducing the probability of illness among the players.
Avoidance
Proper follow ups and health checkups at regular intervals helps the team players in avoiding the illness
like asthma checkup or screening for allergies.
Relationships
It is always important to maintain good relationships with the host country. The combined effort of both
the host country and personnel medical chiefs will help in eliminating the risks involved before and
during the event and maintaining an healthy environment for the players to play the game giving their
best performances.
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Limitations
This report has covered although every points in identifying and analyzing risks, however there are some
risks that can’t be foreseen and predicted. There is always a possibility that we have to face a risk that
has not been discussed earlier and no strategy has been adopted to resolve it. But we should always be
mentally prepared for such things. This report tried to cover all important risk factors and their solutions
but due to lack of some internal information of the host country we can’t predict the actual scenarios
and risks that can be faced due to the political outrage and the protest by the public there.
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Conclusion
The report has been produced to in context with the upcoming Football World Cup 2018 that is going to
be held in Russia. This report is designed for the Argentina team that has been qualified for the world
cup. The purpose of this report is to identify and analyze risk management strategies before and during
the World Cup from the Argentina team’s perspective instead of host country’s perspective. The
experiences from past tournaments have been the main points for learning the risk factors and dealing
with the outcomes. In this article areas of risk have been identified and the corresponding risk
management strategies have been adopted to reduce the impacts of those risks. The key factor for
analyzing the risk and managing them was good relation with the host countries. It have been fruitful to
deal with all the risks when the host country has been supporting you.
This report will give an overview on how to see and study different types of risks. The perspective of
participating team in analyzing risk management has been fruitful in the betterment of the results and
successful completion of the mega event without any major issue. The concept of analyzing risk
management from both sides has proven to be fruitful in such events in proper and complete control of
risks. The idea of seeing risk as positive instead of negative factor has also helped in emphasizing the
performance of risk management strategies.
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References
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concealed-it. Accessed December 21,2014.
 Arnold, R., &Veth, K. M. (2018). Racism and Russian Football Supporters’ Culture: A Case for
Concern?. Problems of Post-Communism, 1-13.
 Bennett A. (2014). Racism in RussiaRetrieved
fromhttps://cers.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2015/01/Racism_in_Russia-Alice-
Bennett-2014.pdf
 Cimbala, S. J. (2013). Russian Threat Perceptions and Security Policies: Soviet Shadows and
Contemporary Challenges. The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies. Pipss. org,
(14/15).
 Ioffe, G. (2018). Continuity And Change In Rural Russia A Geographical Perspective. Routledge.
 Kennedy, P., & Kennedy, D. (Eds.). (2017). Fan Culture in European Football and the Influence of
Left Wing Ideology. Taylor & Francis.
 Mazurova, N. (2016). Russia’s Response to Terrorism.
 Rosenberg, D. (2017). The “Colorless” Protests in Russia: Mixed Messages and an Uncertain
Future. In Non-Western Social Movements and Participatory Democracy (pp. 11-32). Springer,
Cham.
 Roth A. (2018) What awaits England fans at the World Cup in RussiaRetrieved
fromhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/08/world-cup-russia-2018-will-it-all-kick-
off-hooligan-threat
 Royer, J. J., &Filippov, L. O. (2017, July). Identifying potential disaster zones around the
Verkhnekamskoye potash deposit (Russia) using advanced information technology (IT). In
Journal of Physics: Conference Series (Vol. 879, No. 1, p. 012020). IOP Publishing.
 Rublovskis, R. (2013) Challenges for Russia in Current Global Security Environment. The
Implications for the Baltic States. Retrieved fromhttp://www.lai.lv/viedokli/challenges-for-
russia-in-current-global-security-environment-the-implications-for-the-baltic-states-269.
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Audit Trail
Sites Access date Area
http://journals.openedition.org/pipss/4000 23/05/2018 Different security
concerns and threats
associated with the
Russia
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/22519229?
q&versionId=27255606
23/05/2018 Different political,
military and
economic perspective
of Russia reform
http://www.lai.lv/viedokli/challenges-for-russia-in-
current-global-security-environment-the-implications-
for-the-baltic-states-269
24/05/2018 Various challenges in
implementing the
security environment
for the Russia
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-
6596/879/1/012020/pdf
24/05/2018 Disaster, harm,
injury, collusion and
natural calamities
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/
10.1080/14660970.2013.776464
24/05/2018 Different weather
issues like Stress due
to cold,
Epidemiologic and
change in weather
https://www.google.co.in/search?
rlz=1C1DFOC_enIN664IN668&ei=yqMKW8mcHNu_9
QPNvpXIBg&q=election+protest+in+russia+general+pd
f&oq=election+protest+in+russia+general+pdf&gs_l=ps
y-
ab.3...3672.7552.0.7944.16.16.0.0.0.0.191.2299.0j13.13.0...
.0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..3.0.0....0.O7PI5hf8Dm4
25/05/2018 Different
consequences during
election like illegal
disputes, public
protest and violence
acts.
19

https://www.americansecurityproject.org/wp-content/
uploads/2016/10/Ref-0200-Russias-Response-to-
Terrorism.pdf
25/05/2018 Concerns related to
Russian security, like
Protests by the
public, terrorism and
Interview Statement
by the Player’s.
https://cers.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/
97/2015/01/Racism_in_Russia-Alice-Bennett-2014.pdf
25/05/2018 Discrimination issue
in Russia like
Abusing and
exploration verbally,
Tourist supporters or
Foreign players
influence,
Arguments.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/
10.1080/10758216.2017.1414613
26/05/2018 Discrimination issue
in Russia like
Abusing and
exploration verbally,
Tourist supporters or
Foreign players
influence,
Arguments.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/08/world-
cup-russia-2018-will-it-all-kick-off-hooligan-threat
26/05/2018 Threats in Russia
during the FIFA
football world cup.
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