The uphill battle against fan violence comes in the shadow of yet another serious police injurythe prime minister said Kyriakos Mitsotakisspeaking at the cabinet, where he described the measures presented in detail by the Deputy Minister of Sports Yannis Vroutsis.

“We will essentially proceed to direct application of provisions which may have been applicable in the past but had not been implemented by the PAEsuch as the cameras or the immediate establishment of a register with the members of a single club per Association, the electronic ticket with the cooperation of the competent Ministry of Digital Governance, which will allow the immediate identification of the ticket holder through a mobile application” said the Prime Minister.

He added that there will be one more major intervention: “the ability of the state to intervene directly, with an automated framework of administrative penaltieswhenever incidents are detected, such as throwing firecrackers or lighting flares in stadiums, i.e. objective events, which will now result in automatic penalties of holding games behind closed doors.

“It is also important that the related research has been upgradedwith the Prosecutor’s Office now investigating at the highest level the possible interconnection of the violence in the stadiums with the activity of criminal organizations. But we are not sitting idly by, we ourselves have acknowledged that there have been delays. I won’t say the cliché again, that “the knot has reached the comb”, but what I can say is that there is now a demand, a universal demand that the stadiums once again become places of sporting rivalry, but also of harmonious meeting of those who love sports and not to be forced to “consume” important human resources from the Police every Sunday to ensure that there will be no incidents at the stadiums” concluded the Prime Minister.