The “Open Trial” was hosted by Ares Kampanos and talked about the issue of fan violence and his candidacy in the municipal elections with him Apostolo Tzizikostas.
The father of the deceased Alkis Kampanos shocked once again with his statements, stressing that the “violence is met only with love and kindness” and saying that “he would talk to Alki’s killers, because maybe that’s what their parents and society didn’t do.”
What Aris Kampanos said in detail:
Why is he running in the municipal elections: “The rationale is that I wanted Central Macedonia and Thessaloniki to become a beacon of culture. When we mean a beacon of culture, we don’t mean a meaningless word. Culture is the basic derivative of four pillars: democracy, letters, arts and sports. There is no culture without sports. Unfortunately, in our football, because it is a people-friendly sport, marginal people gather who must leave, that is, to be able to heal the abscess in our football.
I will fight for it. I wanted Alkis to be the last victim. But unfortunately we see that the episodes continue, the scenes of violence and basically lives are lost for stupid reasons, for the diversity of the point of view, for the diversity of the group lives are lost. Unfortunately we have dead people and I find the reasons why lives are lost to be completely silly. We all need to educate ourselves on this problem, it is not just a matter of the state and strict laws. In my view, there are two key areas to look at.
One is prevention, to produce a new generation of people with moral education. And in the matter of prevention, the police should immediately arrest these people who act criminally and the justice system should have the strictest penalties so that new hotheads are prevented from creating incidents and taking lives.”
How will he accomplish something that no one else has accomplished? “I will try to get in touch with the clubs, the unions, with the whole world. Let’s sit at the table and find solutions that exist. But surely these solutions are not magical and can give results from one moment to the next. We all have to help.”
On the commitment of Aris and PAOK to him to have a friendly game that has not yet happened: “Perhaps the situation was not ripe. I believe this friendly match between Aris and PAOK will take place because the pure sports fans have nothing to separate. Bigotry is what brings violence. And violence is not met with violence, but only with love and kindness. We have to sit at the table and the agents, and the fans and the unions and I am sure that we will be able to find solutions so that these kinds of incidents where lives are lost will stop.”
For the possibility of hypocrisy in football: “I don’t think they’re pretending. I don’t believe that even the agents, the presidents of the teams, want to invest in the product called football, in their team, and have clients of these kinds of people. They want to have customers who want to pay their price to go to the stadium and enjoy watching a game. Because sport really unites and doesn’t kill. In order to achieve this, I believe that the players should also participate in this part and they can fix a lot within their teams. It sounds very romantic, but maybe I will achieve something with my voice and the strength of my soul that I will shout as much as I can that sport unites, not kills.”
Mr. Kampanos added: “Football is popular and receives a lot of people. And within this part marginal groups find a home which may also have a political background, i.e. be extreme right, extreme left and take out their rage and anger on everything different. There are such elements of marginal people. If we want to see the truth, there is also drug trafficking among young people.
It is a multifaceted phenomenon that does not need the action of a single person or a group, we must all work together in football to find a solution. I will use a phrase of Nikos Kazantzakis: “Darkness is not faced with darkness but with light. And violence is not met with violence but with love. In other words, even these marginal people should not be further marginalized. We must embrace them and lead them on the right path. That is, if we look to expel them, they may create a problem in other areas outside of football. We all need to join together.”
If he could talk to those convicted of murdering Alkis: “I could do that too. It is perhaps what their parents and society did not do. We must face the truth if we want to be able to see a better society. A society that illuminates culture. These are self-evident things, these children also need to be heard only with arguments. They have a different point of view, to have it. But imposing it by force is completely wrong and you have to explain to them that the way they are acting is wrong. I say again that violence is not met with violence, only with love and kindness”
Source: Sport Fm
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