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The weekend events at Limassol’s Tsirion stadium showed once again that our society faces two fundamental problems: frustrated youth who vent their anger through violence, and, the inability of the authorities to introduce long-term measures to punish hooligans and their instigators.
Although this time, it was the Apoel fans who looted the stadium’s canteen, burnt seats and caused a riot, on other occasions it’s the Omonia, Apollon or Ael fans.
In each and every case the football clubs throw their hands high up in the air saying they cannot control the trouble makers who are a minority within the ranks of the real fans, while the police say they cannot be expected to provide protection services to every football fan who visits another field.
Unfortunately, the board of the Football Association, KOP, comprises representatives form every club and is unable to impose harsh penalties on fellow clubs.
Members of parliament should introduce harsher fines on individuals arrested during or after such events, while better enforceable laws should help police make the necessary arrests.
Perhaps, the best solution for all would be to ban fans altogether from a couple of games and let the clubs deal with their own problem internally, or else risk losing their KOP and UEFA funding. Losing money on the lack of ticket sales might even turn out to be the deciding factor to get club leaders keener to solve some of these problems.
This way, TV rights get more value, advertisers get their money’s worth either way and people are safer staying at home. Furthermore, motorists who are not fans of either club at a major stadium do not have to be discriminated upon by traffic police who create bigger jams in their attempt to evacuate the areas of the fans returning to their homes.
But will such measures solve the recurring problem of football hooliganism?
Partly, because the problem is bigger than just football. It has to do with politicians being too involved with clubs and, in some case, fuelling hormone-frenzied supporters. It’s nice getting those shiny banners out that call for “Violence out of Football” and other charming, but ineffective slogans. But will it solve the problem?
With so many social issues rooted deep in our fragile society, why not encourage more research that will go deep into the root of the problem – anything from economic, to education, to post-war traumatic syndrome that makes some short-fused parents blow up over any unimportant issue or the extreme opposite of being apathetic to what their children really need.
This way, with cutbacks in education, our universities and research institutes would have some work to keep them busy for many more years to come.
