Picking up the tab for stadium security

EVERY YEAR, some €2.5 million of taxpayers’ money goes toward policing sports grounds – but that may be about to change.
With hooliganism showing no signs of abating – to the contrary – the price tag is almost sure to rise in coming years.
Now, and perhaps for the first time, sports authorities are seriously considering whether the sports clubs – who receive a generous government grant each year – should start picking up the tab.
The idea was aired at a function earlier this week, where Justice Minister Loucas Louca said the ‘hooliganism fund’ could be better used to build new sports venues or subsidise athletes.
Asked by reporters whether the clubs should take up this cost, Louca said he discussed this possibility with the head of KOA Nikos Kartakoullis.
For his part, Kartakoullis agreed it was unfair for the taxpayer to foot the bill, “given that we have sports clubs with revenues of €20 million, or with footballers who get paid more than €500,000 a year.”
Kartakoullis revealed that KOA has prepared a financial study– with two different scenarios – for channelling the cost to the clubs. The plan is to be discussed at the next session of the board of directors in the New Year.
The plan is more than likely to rile sports clubs but also strain relations between KOA – the supreme sports authority – and the Football Association, given the long-running tug-of-war between the two organisations.
In November, the FA and KOA unveiled plans to install state-of-the-art surveillance system in football stadiums, each claiming credit for the idea.
The data gathered by CCTV surveillance cameras is fed into a central computer, which using special software can identify an individual within minutes. The system works in tandem with ticketing.
British security experts have been invited to Cyprus to advise authorities here on the best way to install the system, which could cost up to €1 million per stadium.

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.