The official statements after each occurrence of football violence remind one of Groundhog Day: The same condemnations of violence, the same vague threats against vague recipients, the same proclaimed good intentions, the same pledges to stop violence here and now. Today, Deputy Sports Minister Stavros Kontonis spoke to Greek radio and repeated the same things. Ad nauseam. Listening to him was as interesting as watching paint dry. Not because the things he said were wrong, but simply because he was repeating the words of every previous Deputy. With the same pomposity, the same pretended determination, the same sweeping under the carpet. Yet, it is amazing how a politician can talk for 15 minutes without saying absolutely nothing of essence. Kontonis imitated his predecessor in deciding to suspend games for a week! Wow, like Yanis Varoufakis would say. It must have taken him hours of hard thinking to decide. This football season, games were suspended twice by the previous Deputy Minister. One because a fan was killed in the stands by rival fans, during a third division match nevertheless. The second suspension was because a referee was brutally beaten by thugs. Of course, the violent incidents that followed those two suspensions were more brutal. It beats logic to think that a violent personality would change his attitude if he can’t watch his favorite team one weekend. Or two. The new Deputy said that the league games will be suspended until football clubs install electronic ticket systems and surveillance cameras, and fan clubs should be dismantled. Probably the Deputy’s aides forgot to inform him that all football fields of major clubs already have cameras and electronic ticket systems. The Panathinaikos football stadium where all hell broke loose on Sunday has both. He took it one step further saying that he won’t hesitate to ban Greek teams from playing in European Championships in order to stop violence. Of course this is the most ridiculous thing anyone has ever heard, but that threat was also a repetition of a “measure” other Deputy Sports Ministers had proposed in the past. Every logical person in tune with reality would say that there were never serious incidents of violence during games of Greek teams against European clubs. When under the watchful eye of UEFA, Greek football fans behave like altar boys, for the most part. It is funny that no Deputy Sports Minister ever mentioned that. Every one of them though has “threatened” fans mentioning that measure. Let’s say then that next year Greek teams are not allowed to play in Europe. And let’s say that it is Sunday and there is a scheduled game between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos. The troublemakers of Panathinaikos will think: “Well, Olympiakos is banned from playing in Europe. Instead of flares and stones, this year let’s throw gladioli and roses at them.” There is also the misconception that the owners of big football clubs like Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, AEK, or PAOK use hard-core fans as an army of hooligans, therefore they don’t want them out of the stadiums. However, team owners pay hundreds of thousand of euros in fines and lose about the same from lost ticket sales because of violence. Why would they want troublemakers in their home field then? The same misconception dictates that team owners only care about winning the championship so they get millions of euros in bonuses for participating in the Champions League. If that was the case, then there wouldn’t be any violence in smaller leagues or in games of “poor” teams. Isn’t it suspicious though that no Deputy ever mentioned the role of police in such incidents? In Sunday’s derby between arch rivals Olympiakos and Panathinaikos there were people injured, lives put in danger, yet there wasn’t a single arrest. One would expect the Public Order Minister to comment on the issue. Again, he was conspicuous in his absence. As if police have a decorative role in sports events. It is an oxymoron that felonies and crimes of the penal code are not viewed as such in Greece when happening inside or outside a football venue. On Sunday there were shootings, albeit with flare guns, throwing of rocks against individuals and personal assaults. Hundreds of troublemakers invaded the field. Yet, as far as police are concerned, it was as if nothing happened. Public prosecutors probably failed to notice. The whole Greek state washes its hands and throws the ball to sports authorities and football clubs as if they have the power to arrest, prosecute or punish.
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