City paid $25k to protect Bahrain soccer team, Sheikh

The Australian Federal Police were also called in to sweep Creswick’s Novotel Forest Resort before Bahrain Football Association president Sheikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa and his group of 23 players and four coaches moved in.

The safety measures came while the team was on a 10-day training camp in the city before the start of the Asian Cup. 

The city paid another $10,000 to transport players around Ballarat, including trips to the premier sporting facility they trained at, the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility at Morshead Park. 

City of Ballarat acting chief executive officer Glenn Kallio on Tuesday said the estimated $35,000 was a small price to pay for the exposure to Ballarat and the new facilities it had gained. 

Mr Kallio said the “low key” security was standard for such a visit, adding the presence of the Sheikh warranted close monitoring. 

“Countries from that part of the world don’t wander into the western world without security,” he said.

“If you were to bring in Iran or Iraq, or one of those countries, you would assume there would be far more security.”

Mr Kallio said everything went to plan with the team’s visit and said the city’s first time hosting an international sporting team had been “sensational”.

“I think it has really enhanced the soccer facility in a very short period of time and Ballarat will reap the benefits of that over time,” he said. “Ballarat is gaining a reputation of being able to host major events and now host major international clubs of any type.” 

The Bahrain team praised the City of Ballarat when they left, saying the $12 million Morshead Park they had trained at had been “perfect”. 

Mr Kallio said Morshead Park had already gained a reputation as an elite sporting facility. 

“They (Bahrain players) said, ‘this is better than Europe’,” Mr Kallio said. 

“And that’s something that in the future we can work on, is getting some of these clubs to be or us being a training base for some of these clubs, rather than going to Europe.”

patrick.byrne@fairfaxmedia.com.au