Strict law over football violence

“THE law covering football violence is stricter this year and so will be the enforcement of it,” the Justice Minister said yesterday.

Kypros Chrysostomides met with police and club representatives, where he urged everybody involved to work together in a friendly and non-violent environment.

“The relationship between the fans and the police and between fans of rival teams must improve and people’s mentality in general needs to change,” he said.

Earlier this month, Chrysostomides said that there would be continuous updating of the obligations of all parties involved – police, clubs, federations, stadium managers and supporters.

According to a new law, which was adopted on July 1, the carrying of dangerous items inside stadiums is prohibited and a special list of all forbidden items will be posted at the stadium entrances.

Penalties include up to two years imprisonment and or a €1,000-2,000 fine and exclusion from stadiums.

In addition, the projection of banners with provocative content, as well as provocative statements considered as ‘inflammatory’ are also prohibited.

“I hope that this year we will see a football season without violence, something which would correspond to our sport and cultural civilisation,” said Chrysostomides.

Yiannos Michael was at Saturday’s APOEL v Anorthosis cup game at the GSP stadium in Nicosia.

“We got there 45 minutes before the 8pm kick-off and APOEL were already shouting insulting, political chants at us,” he told the Mail.

“These included: ‘You didn’t fight to save Famagusta,’ and the insults continued all the way to the end of the match, which we lost 1-0.

“This was doing my head in and if you hear this rubbish long enough it really winds you up and I wanted to cross over and fight those idiots.”

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