Violence in football: Greece’s football is sinking into tolerated violence

The football clubs in the Greek Super League will have to do without their fans for at least two months. However, the reason for this is an incident in another sport. On December 7th, on the sidelines of the volleyball game between the rival clubs Olympiakos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens, a 31-year-old police officer was hit by a flare and critically injured. According to media reports and eyewitnesses, a group of 150 people outside the hall attacked the police with Molotov cocktails and pyrotechnics. The police officer has since been hospitalized in critical condition.

The ban on spectators initially runs until February 12th and, in addition to ghost games in football, also applies to high-risk games in other sports. Why football became the focus of repression after a volleyball game is explained by the fact that in Greece it is common for organized football fans to attend various sports organized by their club.

Following the incident, police arrested 424 people at the scene to identify those involved. The evidence and reports collected helped locate an 18-year-old man who confessed to throwing the flare. He was brought before the public prosecutor last Monday.

There are several indications “that make us optimistic,” said Citizen Protection Minister Yannis Economou about the continued search for the organizers of the attack. »I think more findings will emerge very soon. We found a rocket launcher, tools, fingerprints and DNA evidence. “I think that more evidence is likely to emerge from this that will shed light on this tragic case,” he added, emphasizing that hooligans “undoubtedly form criminal organizations with a structure, a program, a plan and a hierarchy.”

Various measures will now be examined by February, most notably the installation of high-resolution cameras in all Super League stadiums and the possibility of control and use of the material by the responsible authorities. Electronic entry systems with simultaneous identity verification are also being discussed. In addition, the Minister of Sport will announce a series of administrative measures within these two months, including automatic sanctions against clubs in the event of incidents – in addition to the penalties provided for in the sports jurisdiction.

The ban on spectators was met with widespread criticism in the Greek sports world, the public and politics. Ilias Magklinis wrote in Greece’s largest daily newspaper Kathimerini: “This decision seems to be more an attempt at showmanship than substance. It is also unfair because it primarily affects ordinary fans who have already paid in advance – and expensively – for electronic season tickets. They are the majority and they are the only ones who are not to blame.” The vice president and managing director of PAOK Thessaloniki, Makis Gagatsis, suggested at the meeting of the Super League to ask the state to lift the “closed gates”, but the Close stadiums for the entire season to those who cause incidents.

The recent excess of violence is actually not an isolated incident in the history of Greek sport. In August, 29-year-old Michalis Katsouris was murdered with a knife in Athens following an altercation between AEK Athens and Dinamo Zagreb football fans. At that time, despite a travel ban, hundreds of Zagreb fans, including numerous neo-Nazis, traveled to the Champions League qualifying game. Together with fellow supporters of Panathinaikos Athens, they then struck in front of the AEK stadium. Afterwards, the Greek police came under criticism: they allegedly knew about this secret plan. In any case, she was informed by the border police of Montenegro that many Croatian fans were traveling in private cars.

Another death occurred in February 2022, when 19-year-old Alkis Kampanos was murdered by PAOK Thessaloniki football fans. This is the third time in the past two years that the government has announced measures to combat fan violence. And it’s mostly about collective punishment: After Katsouris’ death, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in August that he wanted to ban all fan clubs.

As with many announcements of this kind, implementation fails. The new chairman of the left-wing party Syriza, Stefanos Kasselakis, now criticized the political practice: “The Mitsotakis government also announced measures before – and since then there has been the murder of a fan and a police officer who is now fighting for his life.” This time it seems Government willing to go one step further. Minister Economou has handed over to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court a list of 200 people with names and addresses, concerning a total of five potentially criminal organizations, each with around 40 people. This is about fans of the five top Greek clubs: Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, AEK, PAOK Thessaloniki and Aris Thessaloniki.

According to critics, this attempt will once again end in nothing because these structures are linked to the Greek mafia, which in turn is deeply intertwined with the state, whether police or politics. They are also tolerated by the football clubs. These structures are indicative, not only of the state of Greek sport, but of society and politics as a whole, which are characterized by corruption, blackmail and threats.

Meanwhile, the head of the Super League, Evangelos Marinakis, has resigned. He is also the owner of Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest – and has been criticized several times in the past for dark machinations. He was investigated in 2011 as part of a manipulation scandal, in 2012 as the intellectual instigator of an explosive attack against a referee’s bakery and in 2014 because of a visit to the referee’s dressing room. His CV also contains connections to drug smuggling, such as the discovery of a heroin shipment on a ship that was connected to him. So far he has always escaped with a dismissal of the case or an acquittal.