By George Psyllides
A 17-YEAR-OLD football fan arrested for hooliganism yesterday pleaded guilty to taking part in a pitch invasion during riots at the Paralimni stadium after a game between the local team and Omonia of Nicosia.
George Michael Georgiou, a welder from Peristerona village in the Nicosia district, was released on £500 bail and will be sentenced on December 7.
The riots broke out after the end of the game when infuriated Omonia fans charged onto the field to protest about the way the referee had handled the game.
Local authorities said yesterday they would sue the Omonia club and whoever else was deemed responsible for the riots by Omonia hooligans.
Omonia fans have been blamed for extensive damage caused to the Paralimni stadium and to shops at the village of Xylophagou, in the Famagusta district.
Paralimni Mayor Nicos Vlittis yesterday said damage reports would be submitted to the Cyprus Athletics federation after the full extent of the destruction had been assessed.
Vlittis said that representatives from the Athletics Federation, Omonia, and local club Enosis Neon Paralimniou, would visit the stadium at 9am today to examine the damage, which is expected to reach tens of thousands of pounds.
Ten cars and nine motorcycles were damaged outside the stadium. The Electrical and Mechanical Services have assessed the damage to the vehicles alone at close to £30,000.
According to Famagusta police chief, Andreas Christofi, 400 fans charged onto the pitch at the end of Sunday’s game, which ended at 2-2. The home side’s two equalisers were both controversial, coming from a contested penalty and a suspected offside. Omonia themselves had two goals disallowed for offside.
Furious Omonia fans hurled stones and practically anything else they could lay their hands on at opposing supporters.
Five police officers were injured in the outburst of violence, with a sergeant and two firemen being rushed to Paralimni District Hospital.
The hooligans set fire to the mat used for the pole vault, and destroyed speakers and signs on the east side of the stadium.
The toilets on the east stand were demolished, and police said they had found pieces from the toilets in the shops that were later smashed up in Xylophagou.
The Xylophagou shops were targeted by returning Omonia fans.
Police says travelling fans stopped at Xylophagou and started breaking shop windows.
The fans claim they were provoked while they were passing through the villages of Xylophagou and Frenaros.
Police said yesterday they were questioning a bus driver and the fans he was carrying, all from Limassol, who had stopped in Xylophagou. Two clubs were found in the bus, police said.
They were also looking into Omonia fans’ allegations that they had been provoked.
But the police yesterday came under fire for allegedly not doing their job properly.
Christofi denied his force’s coverage of the game had been inadequate, saying 60 uniformed police officers and 20 in plain clothes had been on duty at the match.
Those hooligans whom police tried to arrest, said Christofi, were violently snatched out of the hands of police officers by other fans.
Police Chief Andreas Angelides yesterday insisted that the police were not to blame for the riots, and said the responsibility lay with the fans.
“I leave it to the people to decide if the police, under the circumstances in which the riots happened, bears any responsibility,” Angelides said.
“Whenever we intervene, they blame us for everything. It is not like that at all. The police is always present and deals with these situations in the right way,” he added.
Angelides also warned that police may rethink their presence at football matches if the violence persisted.
“We may think about withdrawing the police force from football games if the situation continues,” he said.
