THE FOOTBALL Association yesterday brushed aside the notion that visiting fans should be banned from high-risk football games, in the wake of the latest bout of hooliganism at two matches on Sunday.
The proposal was put forward by Justice Minister Loucas Louca, who was referring in particular to the disturbances in Limassol, where fans of the home team AEL clashed with police, pelting officers with stones and fire bombs.
Louca said he would urge the Football Association to consider the partial ban, adding: “Radical measures are needed if we are to combat hooliganism.”
FA president Costakis Koutsokoumnis argued a ban on fans would be a disproportionate response to the events unfolding in Limassol, because the two sets of fans did not clash with one another; rather, he said, it was only the AEL supporters who attacked the police.
“We do not believe that a ban is the solution,” he added.
In turn, Michalis Herodotou, of the police department that deals with hooliganism, countered that the only reason AEL fans attacked the police was because they were trying to reach the visiting Apoel supporters.
So far the FA has balked from putting the squeeze on football clubs by hitting them where it hurts – ticket sales.
Under FA rules, a club can allocate up to 30 per cent of tickets to fans of the visiting team. The FA has the power to stop clubs from issuing any visitors’ tickets, on a game-by-game basis.
And under UEFA regulations, the FA can also enforce a permanent quota of five per cent on visitors’ tickets.
Police meanwhile have been calling for football games to be held even earlier in the day, saying it is more difficult to police crowds at night.
Recently, the Chief of Police accused clubs of not co-operating in identifying known troublemakers. The clubs say there is little else they can do other than appeal to their fans’ good sense.
And while clubs frequently denounce football-related violence after the fact, they are careful not to go overboard lest they bite the hand that feeds them.
“There’s only so much we can do. Inside a sports ground, we have some influence over the fans. But outside, where most of the violence now tends to occur, it’s a different story,” said Michalis Kafkalias, general manager of AEL Football Club Ltd.
The game itself at the Tsirion Stadium had passed without any incident whatsoever; the disturbances broke out outside the sports ground, Kafkalias told the Mail.
This reflected a general trend, where trouble seems to have shifted to outside of sports grounds, where hooligans have greater freedom to run riot and are unseen by surveillance cameras.
Kafkalias dismissed the notion that the clubs’ stance should be seen as a tacit tolerance of hooliganism.
Asked whether the club would blacklist any of their fans who might be found guilty of public affray or assaulting a police officer, Kafkalias said this was easier said than done.
Under the law, a court had the power to ban someone from returning to a sports ground if he or she is found guilty. Without such a court decision, clubs say they are powerless to implement the ban on their own initiative.
Due to a backlog, cases involving hooligans can take up to two years to go to trial.
