Drug test, breathalyzer and up to 10 years ban: Cyprus’ 9 measures for violence in the stadiums!

Cyprus, after announcement of the EPO, yesterday, that the final of the Greek Cup will be held at GSP in Nicosia, waiting, however, to be given the green light by the police, has come to the fore. The final developments are expected from Monday, when the Cypriot police will be informed, which seems to be, however, already oriented towards very specific and strict terms and conditionsto say “yes” to holding the final at the Nicosia stadium.

It is interesting to see, however what is true on the island regarding fan violence. Because, apparently, this phenomenon is not observed only in Greece – where, since the conversation brought it up, within 24 hours he saw it happen the bad loss in Niki Volou-AEL and to fall wild wood in Ioannina among fanswith a 30-year-old fighting to stay alive.

Fan violence is extremely complex phenomenon in dealing with it, and it requires constant vigilance and synergy of all involved bodies, sports justice, society itself and – to a greater extent – the state, which, however, doesn’t seem to be… sweating much! On the other hand, of course, fan violence cannot be solved by punishing individual fans, but it requires a change in attitudes. Great talk.

So, in Cyprus, to get to the point at hand, the debate on the 9 meters, approved by the Council of Ministers on violence in stadiums. It should be noted that at the end of last March the Minister of Justice Anna Koukkidou-Prokopiou had announced these new measures to deal with violence in sports venues. The occasion was chaos and serious incidents between fans and the police in the semifinal of the Final 4 of the Cyprus Cup between Apollon Limassol and Anorthosis!

In fact, speaking at a press conference regarding the decisions of the Council of Ministers on violence in sports venues, the Minister of Justice had said that “they were given instructions to the Chief of Policeto quickly proceed with the conduct of an administrative investigation, in order to establish the correctness of the actions or any errors or omissions of those who participated in the operation of policing last Sunday’s basketball game and to allocate responsibilities where they exist or to take the necessary corrective measures , in order to ensure that the same mistakes and omissions are not repeated in the future”.

And additionally he said that it was decided to take nine measures. These are the following:

1. Amendment of the relevant legislation to increase the penalty of exclusion of illegal fans from sports venues up to ten (10) years.

2. Amending the relevant legislation to allow the conduct of breathalyzers and drug tests, for the purposes of full implementation of the ban on the entry of persons who are intoxicated or under the influence of drugs into sports venues and their adjacent areas.

3. Intensification of physical control of fans to identify and confiscate illegal and dangerous items by the Police.

4. Intensification of controls and surveillance of the movements of organized fans by the Police.

5. Establishment and operation of a permanent anti-riot unit in the Direct Action Motorized Unit (MMAD), with the exclusive task of policing sports matches or other high-risk events.

6. Amendment of the relevant legislation for the involvement of the Police in the control of the application in sports venues of the fan card.

7. Implementation of a strict schedule for the installation of closed monitoring circuits at all stages where the standards required by law are currently not met. Amend legislation so that closed-circuit surveillance systems are installed in all stages where first-class matches are held, regardless of capacity, within specific timetables to be determined in consultation with all parties involved. The goal is the more effective implementation of the fan card measure.

8. On the basis of the opinion of the Legal Service, the possibility of promoting, in the form of an urgent amendment to the relevant legislation, will be considered, so that the recommendation of the Police to the home Federation to ban the movement of fans, becomes binding. In the event of new incidents, the Police will be able to recommend the holding of matches behind closed doors, with the last measure banning the holding of matches.

9. Re-evaluation of financial or other state aid to unions.

The Minister of Justice, in fact, will be in hotline with the Legal Committee of the Parliament on the issue of violence in stadiums. At the Committee session at the beginning of April, moreover, where all the involved bodies were present except the Fan Associations, which, while they were invited, they did not attendit was agreed that every two months the minister will inform the Committee about the progress of the measures decided by the Government.