Somalia was eliminated from the quarter finals of the 2018 Bandy World Championship. The team that consists of Somali refugees based in Sweden is the only non-Nordic country that takes part in this ice-hockey lookalike.

Bandy is the forerunner to hockey and the big sister of ice hockey. But there are notable differences.
The rink in which it is played is much larger than a hockey rink. There are 11 players on a team, while a hockey team consists of only six. Bandy uses a small ball, hockey uses a puck.

The net in bandy is much higher than hockey nets. The rules for bandy are similar to soccer and field hockey. But unlike the spectacular clashes that ice-hockey fans love, Bundy rules allow no full-on body checking.

Championship in China and Russia

Bandy is almost unknown in North America, but in Europe, especially Sweden and Russia, there are professional leagues.
There is a world championship for bandy held each year.

In this year’s 38th Bandy World Championships, two pools are played in China and Russia.

Division A matches are being played in the south-eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk while Division B plays in Harbin, capital of China’s Heilongjiang province.

Somali refugees in Sweden

The odd men out in the B-division are the Somali team. They come from a pool of some 3,000 Somali refugees that landed in the Swedish town of Borlänge in the 2010s.

Local NGOs helping to integrate the refugees into Swedish society came up with the plan to introduce them to Bandy, which is very popular in the region.

The Somali team largely consists of Somali football players, none of whom had ever skated on ice before. They took part for the first time in the 2014 bandy World Championships in Russia.

But, in spite of their enthusiasm, the Somali team didn’t win a single match this year.

In the B-division’s Group A that they shared with the Netherlands, China and Slovakia, they lost all three games, and in the quarter finals they lost with a massive 20-0 against Estonia.

Estonia will meet the Netherlands on 2 February in the semis and the winner of that match will face the winner of the confrontation between China and Japan for the last fight about the World Cup.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will be present at the finals of the A-division, consisting of Sweden, Norway, Khazakstan, Finland, the US, Hungary, Germany and Russia on 3 February, to be played in Khabarovsk.

MINNEAPOLIS – Concrete barriers and chain-link fencing are going up around the site of the Super Bowl in downtown Minneapolis, where a contingent of local, state and national agencies is working to ensure that the game and dozens of related events are safe.

The downtown location of the Feb. 4 title game has presented challenges for authorities, who have had to get creative as they carved a secure perimeter around businesses and a major hospital near U.S. Bank Stadium. But it’s not the first time the Super Bowl has dealt with the challenges of a city center, and authorities who have spent roughly two years thinking about every possible scenario say they are prepared.

“We’re ready for anything that may come our way,” Minneapolis Police Commander Scott Gerlicher said. “It’s about not just feeling safe, but making sure people are in fact safe.”

Gerlicher, whose department is overseeing security, said this Super Bowl will have the largest deployment of federal resources yet. That’s because Minneapolis has a relatively small department – less than 900 officers compared with the roughly 5,000 in Houston, where last year’s game was held – and needed more personnel.

Dozens of other cities are sending officers too, and the Minnesota National Guard has been activated. An additional 10,000 volunteers are being trained to spot suspicious activity.

Visitors can expect to see increased police patrols, bomb-sniffing dogs, helicopters, officers in tactical gear, and that chain-link and concrete fence around U.S. Bank Stadium.

Plenty of technology such as motion detectors, closed-circuit cameras and air particle sensors will be operating behind the scenes. Giant machines are being used to scan shipments to the stadium. Extra security cameras will be sprinkled around the city, and NFL-sanctioned events will have metal detectors. Teams will be in place to react to whatever comes up.

“Our efforts are to make sure that it’s a warm and inviting atmosphere. But make no mistake about it – there are tons of watchful eyes from the law enforcement and public safety sectors,” said Alex Khu, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Minnesota and the federal coordinator for this year’s Super Bowl.

Because of the dense area around the stadium, some security screening will be happening off-site. They also had to figure out how to secure Super Bowl Live, a largely free-flowing, 10-day outdoor event that’s open to the public. Meanwhile, some events are being held in nearby St. Paul and at the Mall of America in Bloomington, while team hotels, practice facilities – and transportation to and from – also must be secured.

Jeffrey Miller, former senior vice president and chief security officer for the NFL, said each host city faces different challenges. In Minneapolis, perhaps the biggest is the weather. He said security staff may need to be doubled or tripled to keep people from being exposed to dangerous elements for a prolonged time.

“That’s a challenge, and it’s a costly one you don’t have if playing in San Diego,” he said.

Miller said setting up a perimeter around a downtown venue is more difficult than setting one up around a stadium surrounded by parking lots. Architects, engineers and other experts are part of the planning. For fans, he said, there are advantages to being downtown and close to the action.

“The NFL is really good at trying to balance security needs with the fan engagement part of the equation,” he said.

Miller said officials also have to take into account recent world events – meaning the possibility of a terror attack.

Joe Rivers, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI in Minneapolis, said a threat assessment for the game has included analyzing attacks around the world. He cited the May bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, the Oct. 1 shooting at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas and the Oct. 31 vehicle attack on a New York City bike path. Without providing detail, Rivers said authorities used those attacks to shape their plans.

Local history must also be considered. Minneapolis has seen dozens of young men travel to Somalia or Syria to join extremist groups over the past decade. There also has been a stabbing attack at a central Minnesota mall and a more recent bombing of a local mosque.

“It’s impossible for us to ignore the historical cases that we’ve had here and the type of threats … that we’ve addressed,” Rivers said.

He said there is no credible threat to the Super Bowl, and authorities are continuing to gather intelligence. Rivers said his main concerns are low-tech threats, such as someone driving a vehicle into or firing a weapon at a crowd.

“Not to alarm anyone, but it’s not hard to come by weapons in this country and with where our venues are located and things like that, there’s no way we can possibly secure every single floor of every single building that can see a venue or can overlook a crowd, so those are concerns, yes,” he said.

Fans attending Super Bowl events can help by staying vigilant. In addition to calling 911, people who see something suspicious can call 1-800-CALL-FBI. In the event of something like the Boston Marathon bombing, the FBI has created a website where witnesses can upload videos and photos so the FBI can gather evidence quickly.

“Obviously, the best case scenario is that we hope that we do all of this … and no one never even realizes all the legwork that went into it on the front end,” Rivers said. “They just show up, have a good time, and leave and go home.”

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – The largest Somali community in the United States is centered just blocks from the site of this year’s Super Bowl, but that is too close for comfort for some of the mostly Muslim residents of the “Little Mogadishu” neighborhood in Minneapolis.

Some Somali residents worry about being a target of the heightened security that always surrounds one of the biggest sports events – but especially this year, when fear and suspicions about Muslims and immigrants in general are running high.

With thousands of visitors expected ahead of the National Football League’s championship game on Feb. 4, Somali residents say they are concerned about the potential for harassment or random violence directed at members of the Somali community, long vilified as a hotbed of extremism.

“The Super Bowl is great, but there is an anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim mood in this country. A lot of people are coming,” said Abdirizak Bihi, director of Somali Education and Social Advocacy Center.

Despite apprehensions, many are also eager to dispel negative views and show football fans that the community is hard-working and friendly – no different from many other ethnic communities in the United States.

The heart of the community is located within sight of U.S. Bank Stadium in the neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside, where coffee houses, Somali shops and a mosque dot the streets, and women covered with hijabs are a frequent sight.

The greater Minneapolis area is home to about 50,000 people with Somali heritage, those born in the United States as well as immigrants and refugees from the East African country.

Somalia and its capital, Mogadishu, have endured decades of political instability and more recently militant attacks from Al-Shabaab. The country has also been targeted by Trump’s travel ban, which blocks entry into the United States of most people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

More than 20 Somali-Americans have left Minnesota to join extremist groups overseas, such as ISIS and Al-Shabaab, but local leaders say this is a small number that defames a friendly and hard-working people.

“Our community has been labeled as a national security threat. We live in constant apprehension,” said Kamal Hassan, who founded Somali Human Rights coalition in Minneapolis after fleeing his homeland. “Every day you hear social media threats against our community.”

SECURITY TIGHT

Growing anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States, fueled by President Donald Trump’s statements before and “America First” rhetoric, has exacerbated anxieties about public attitudes and police surveillance and immigration enforcement, according to community leaders.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has denied that the Somali community was under any special scrutiny for the Super Bowl. It never investigates people or groups based solely on ethnicity, race or national origin, said Jeffrey Van Nest, media coordinator for the FBI in Minneapolis.

But with the big game approaching, community leaders have stepped up efforts to dispel the negative perceptions and fears, going on radio shows and holding meetings with police in an effort to build relations and prevent trouble.

Such concerns are not entirely unfounded.

More than a year after young Somali men from Minneapolis were put on trial for trying to join the Islamic State in 2016, a bomb was thrown though the window of the Dar Al Farooq mosque last summer.

“We are vulnerable. We are a few steps away from the stadium,” said Mohamed Omar, executive director of the mosque. “It’s very scary now, the climate we live in.”

About 60 public agencies, including the FBI and Minneapolis police, are taking part in security operations for the Super Bowl, which officials term as a “Tier 1” event.

The planning began two years ago and authorities plan to exhibit a massive show of force to deter and protect against any would-be attackers, including thousands of uniformed police and bomb-sniffing dogs.

Behind the scenes, authorities will deploy undercover officers, the latest technology and military-style intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to counter any threat.

Many local Somali residents will be driving taxis during Super Bowl week, as well as working as security guards at the stadium and serving traditional food at local cafes nearby.

Located just across an interstate highway from the game, Super Bowl visitors could easily stroll through Little Mogadishu or wander into one of the city’s Somali malls, lined with stalls selling colorful African dresses and meat-filled pastries.

“They will see a different community than (the) one portrayed in the news,” said Jibril Afyare, president of the Twin Cities Somali American Citizens League.