POLITIS yesterday published the findings of a survey offering insights into the causes of crowd violence at football games, following Saturday’s bloody clashes in Limassol.
The study, conducted during the period 2000 to 2002, held interviews with 200 die-hard fans of four clubs frequently involved in disturbances – APOEL, Omonia, Anorthosis and AEL.
The reasons for violence at football games are as follows: referees 42 per cent; societal problems 22 per cent; fanaticism 17 per cent; politics and parties 16 per cent; the players’ behaviour 12 per cent; fans’ provocative actions 10 per cent; fixed games, club official and the police nine per cent; inter-city antagonism five per cent; copycatism, cussing and the media three per cent.
Sociologists Christina Loizidou and Nicos Peristianis were part of the team carrying out the study. Analysing the findings for Politis, Loizidou drew special attention to fans’ indictment of referees, saying this was indicative of the prejudices pervading the football community in general.
She explained there was a broad belief among fans of the existence of rigged matches and corrupt referees who usually favour the larger clubs. These feelings of injustice – coupled with the knowledge that no one ever gets punished – feed the passions ahead of the game. And when a referee makes a bad call during a match, the pent-up frustration manifests itself in violence.
But hooliganism is a complex matter that cannot be reduced to just one cause: mob psychology, clan mentalities and downright delinquency also play a major part. Use of drugs and drinking is another facet.
According to sociologists, politics is another consideration, although its influence has waned since the 1970s and 1980s. Traditionally, Omonia has been affiliated to communist AKEL, while APOEL is linked to the rightwing DISY party. Matters are not helped by the fact that several politicians have served as club presidents, and are often seen debating with another on TV sports shows.
In recent years, party partisanship has given way to localism – now the grudge is not so much between communists and fascists: it’s Nicosia versus Limassol. The long-running feud opposing AEL and Apollon of Limassol and APOEL of Nicosia has been well documented.
One theory is that APOEL represents the capital and, by extension, central authority, which is abhorred by the other towns. In turn, authority correlates to the police, which is tasked with enforcing law and order at football games.
It has even been suggested that the majority of police officers assigned to Saturday’s game were brought in from Nicosia, giving Limassol fans yet another reason to be peeved. This claim was made by the president of AEL, Ayis Agapiou.
From witness accounts, it seems that APOEL fans were provoking the home crowd throughout the game by chanting and setting fire to seats. When the game ended, the visitors were allowed to leave first, with AEL supporters made to wait around half an hour. Some hypothesise that AEL fans, not being able to vent their anger on the opposing camp, decided to take it out on the police.
“That would be a safe bet,” says sociologist Nicos Peristianis. “In the fans’ minds, especially those who are hell-bent on causing trouble, the ‘cops’ are the next best target.
“The majority of the rabble-rousers are youngsters looking for an identity, somewhere to belong to. Being a member of a football support group is all about that.”
But would wannabe hooligans exist even if there were no football? Wouldn’t they find some other excuse or milieu to be violent?
“That’s a good question,” notes Peristianis.
“Perhaps they would. But you need to remember that wanton acts of violence are rare. By their nature, human beings have a need to legitimise their actions. So if you’re a football supporter fighting against injustice, communism, fascism, the cops, corruption, whatever… well then it’s perfect.”
