The granting of special compensation to the personnel of the Hellenic Police, who are employed in order, security and traffic measures for the conduct of domestic sports meetings of the professional men’s football category Super league 1 and international inter-club sports meetings of men’s football, provides for a provision of the multi-bill of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance which is being discussed, from today, in the competent parliamentary committee.

The bill provides for the granting of special compensation to the personnel of the Hellenic Police when they are employed in order, security and traffic measures and for the conduct of domestic sports meetings of professional categories and the Greek Cup of football, basketball, volleyball, handball and water polo, international inter-club sports meetings of basketball, volleyball , handball and water polo and international sports meetings of national football, basketball, volleyball, handball and water polo teams, provided that their degree of danger requires the deployment of intense police measures.

According to the report of the General Accounting Office, the annual expenditure for granting the special compensation is not expected to exceed the amount of 2.5 million euros.

The bill also provides for an extension of the term of the Permanent Committee for Combating Violence.

The Deputy Minister of National Finance Athanasios Petralias referred to this specific provision, when he spoke about the bill to the competent parliamentary committee.

“Until now, there has never been compensation for the participation of the Greek Police in the stadiums. Now, after a discussion with the Greek Police, this provision is passed, which we actually discussed months ago, and it happens to be coming up for voting now, along with the facts”, said the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance and added “this is passed the provision so that police officers receive 30 euros and the corresponding travel allowance, as long as they participate in guarding the fields and sports events, and I think we should all support it”. Î…

During the discussion of the multi-bill in the Finance Committee of the Parliament, the ND rapporteur Athanasios Kavvadas referred to the policeman who is fighting for his life, falling “victim of blind violence”. The wishes and prayers of all of us are with him, said the ND MP and added: “we are close to him and close to his family, morally and emotionally”. Mr. Kavvadas congratulated the Greek Police for the arrest of the culprit, however he pointed out that “regardless of the hand that threw the flare, Greek justice should investigate the extent to which gangs or criminal organizations operate that systematically bring violence to the stadiums” . Violence has no place in sports, said the ND MP and emphasized that everyone, as far as they can, must ensure that citizens, athletes, sports fans, families, children can participate safely. “The government has today made it clear that it has the will to implement tough and necessary measures that tackle violence in sports venues,” Mr Kavvadas said. In relation to the compensation of the police officers participating in emergency security measures for sports events, the ND rapporteur said that the police officers are involved in a very dangerous mission, as it was unfortunately proved, once again, some 24 hours ago.

KKE’s special buyer Konstantinos Metaxas referred to the measures announced by the government, after the incidents at the volleyball match in Rentis and the injury of the policeman. “No government has dared to cut the thread that connects business interests to sport, to fan armies, and even to the very state apparatus that should otherwise protect sports venues. Instead, all governments support the rot of sport-commodity and team-business, in various ways. For this reason, for years now, the exact same tightening measures, the idiosyncratic offenses, the practices of collective responsibility have been recycled, with absolutely no results, since the core of the problem is not touched”, said the expert buyer of the KKE and emphasized that the only solution , to address violence in sports arenas, is sport without business interests, as opposed to what the government is doing, i.e. “a sport without fans”.

The special buyer of Hellenic Solution Stelios Fotopoulos, on the occasion of the provision for the compensation of the police officers for their participation in order measures during the games, said that more effective measures should be taken to deal with the violence. “We cannot count dead people in the stadiums every few months. Especially after the quarantine period, we warned you that social unrest and extreme behavior would surface and you didn’t listen to us at all,” said the specialist buyer of Hellenic Solution.

The special buyer of the “Spartans” Ioannis Kontis wished that the police officer who is hospitalized in a critical condition will recover. But he wondered “what will be the help of expelling the fans from the stadiums until February”. Mr. Contis commented that today we are talking about cameras in the stadiums, while they were planned 20 years ago to be abolished afterwards. He also said that provision has already been made for nominal tickets as well as e-entry. “Government is for enforcing laws. Not making and re-making laws, which are not respected at the end of the day,” said the MP and complained that no government touches the real interests behind the armies of followers.

The special buyer of “Niki” Andreas Voryllas referred to the provision for the extension of the term of the Permanent Committee for Combating Violence. “Extension, to deal with violence in sport, during the current season, is not enough on its own, as recent events have unfortunately demonstrated. We call on the government to take serious measures against violence in sports venues immediately. We must act immediately, otherwise we will have more victims,” ​​said Mr. Voryllas. Regarding the serious injury of the policeman in Rentis, the specialist buyer of Niki said that “this is an incident that happens in war zones” and the victim is fighting for his life. “I am reflecting on the heroic fortitude shown by this police officer who found himself in the midst of a mob-dominated gathering of hooligans who were equipped with deadly weapons and were manifesting their murderous intentions in all manner of ways,” said Mr. Voryllas.