THE POLICE and the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) are racing against time to have their stadiums in compliance with standard safety regulations.
Cyprus currently quite low in terms of the stadium safety ranks of UEFA, Europe’s governing body of football, and the police have already been called in to help stadium officials deal with problems that could arise during a football match on the island.
Cyprus’ reputation as an international venue has been marred by reports of crowd trouble at football matches, with fans fighting among each other and objects being hurled onto the pitch during.
Iacovos Papacostas, a police official involved in stadium security, told reporters that apart from the GSP Stadium in Nicosia, all other stadiums on the island face a problem with regards to safety measures and how to control problems that arise.
“There is good harmonisation between police and stadium officials at the GSP Stadium and we are aiming to use our experience of security at the GSP Stadium to other stadiums around the island.”
UEFA clearly states that the responsibility of security during a football match lies in the hands of stadium officials and that the police are there only for assistance. The main reason for UEFA declaring the GSP Stadium as the only ground suitable to host a European game was because of the safety issues.
For the last three years, Anorthosis Famagusta have been playing their home games in Nicosia despite having their own 10,000-seat stadium in Larnaca. But crowd safety wasn’t the only issue that fell under the responsibility of stadium officials said Papacostas.
“Safety isn’t just about keeping crowd trouble at bay but being ready to work with police in the event of other emergencies such as a fire, a bomb explosion, an earthquake and the possible collapse of a stand.”
Last season many games had to be abandoned or play was stopped after fans of various teams threw objects onto the pitch during a game. Football officials and police officers on the island, complain that it should be the clubs holding the responsibility for their players and not the stadium officials.
Derby games on the island, matches between the two local sides of the same town, are always deemed high risk by police while rivalry between the top sides from Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Nicosia is also heated whenever they face each other.
Referees are also a recurring problem which lead to crowd trouble. In the early nineties, a match between Apollon Limassol and Omonia Nicosia led to huge scenes of violence when the referee of that game, Stefanos Hadjistefanou, gave six penalties in the 4-4 draw between the two sides.
Scores of fans from both sides attacked Hadjistefanou after the game and the referee was rushed to hospital with head injuries.
The 2005-2006 Cypriot season begins today and will continue until May of the following year.
