NICOSIA’S Omonia football club could be fined or barred from their home GSP stadium for a number of games after rampaging fans trashed the ground and put 11 people in hospital at the end of a derby match on Sunday
The scenes of hooliganism were some of the worse seen on the terraces in recent months. Omonia fans pelted the referee and stormed rival stands after their sides fiercely contested 1-1 draw with Olympiakos. The violence left ten police officers slightly injured, while a young fan was taken to hospital for treatment after being beaten up by an angry mob. A 61-year-old man had a heart attack during the game and died. The violence caused £20,000 of damage to the stadium.
The Chairman of the Football Federation (KOP) Marios Lefkaritis yesterday said the Football Association’s disciplinary committee would meet next Thursday to discuss possible penalties to be imposed on Omonia. These could include a hefty fine and/or being banned from playing at the GSP for a number of games.
Lefkaritis suggested on Monday that police had taken inadequate precautions for the game, despite knowing the ground would be packed to capacity and there was a high risk of trouble. The game was crucial to the First Division standings, as a win by Omonia would have taken them to the top of the league.
Police deny the allegations, but concede the situation got out of hand.
Omonia, for their part, blame referee Nicos Savvas for the violence. Club spokesman Loris Kyriakou said yesterday that Savvas had provoked the violence with a string of calls that were “clearly biased against our club”.
On a live sports show on Monday night, Kyriakou even suggested the heart attack death had been indirectly caused by the tension from the referee’s handling of the game.
Kyriakou nevertheless told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the club did condemn the violence as “reprehensible”, adding Omonia were “working with police” in an effort to bring the troublemakers to justice. The club will foot the £20,000 bill for the damages to the stadium.
So far no arrests have been made. On Sunday, three suspects were detained for questioning but then released.
Phivos Constantinides, the general manager of the GSP stadium, said yesterday the ground’s authorities had met with police and decided to take a string of short- and long-term measures aimed at “stopping the troublemakers from having their way”.
He said the police contingent assigned to the ground would be increased, and that certain areas would be sealed off.
“But we cannot just wrap the whole place up with fences and what have you; that would be like going back to the 1970s. The GSP is a modern stadium, and we intend to keep it that way.”
He noted, however, that the problem was generally one of mentality. “You don’t often see such behaviour in Europe,” he said.
Constantinides admitted that closed circuit TV surveillance systems would help to track down troublemakers. “Tenders were out on purchasing this surveillance system, but they came to nothing as the deadline expired last October,” he said, adding that new tenders for the purchase had recently been issued.
Such measures would not only tighten security at the ground, but would also boost the GSP’s bid to stage the 2003 UEFA Cup Final and Champions League games, vastly lucrative undertakings.
FIFA rules require the installation of closed circuit cameras for such games. The stadium would also need to upgrade the crowd capacity to 30,000. Currently, it can accommodate around 24,000 fans.
Constantinides yesterday confirmed that, despite the damage, the stadium would host next week’s fixtures as scheduled.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
