By Constantinos Psillides
A BILL aimed at tackling football violence will be put to a plenum vote on Wednesday, said House Legal Affairs Committee chairman and DISY MP Soteris Sampson, after the majority of the parties settled on the hot issue of the fan card.
During Friday’s session of the House Legal Affairs committee, parties decided to go through with the fan card but allow for a transition period. The fan card will be mandatory for the purchase of tickets for sports events as of January 1, 2015, instead of September, as had originally been suggested.
“A transitional period was deemed necessary, so that people would have time to adjust to the idea of a fan card. Those who wish to have their fan cards issued before January can do so. After January the fan card will be mandatory,” said Sampson.
The amendment was proposed jointly by MPs from EDEK and DIKO. DISY agreed to the transition period but main opposition party AKEL still refused to consent, insisting that forcing fans to register constitutes a human rights violation.
AKEL also disagreed on the provision stating that football teams should be billed by police for supervising the matches. DISY stands alone on this matter, as EDEK and DIKO also have reservations.
AKEL MP Aristos Damianou told the Cyprus Mail that the party still hasn’t decided whether it will vote against the bill.
“We made significant progress. A number of our proposals were adopted but we still have strong disagreements over the fan card and billing the teams for policing. The fan card was implemented in Britain in the Thatcher days but it has since been abandoned,” said Damianou, adding that AKEL will decide on the matter on Wednesday morning before the plenum vote.
The state pays around €1m a year for police to be present at football matches, according to a 52-page report that Auditor General Odysseas Michaelides sent to the Finance ministry last May. Michaelides had suggested that teams should increase ticket prices by one euro to cover half the cost of policing. Michaelides reminded in his report that Cyprus Football Association (CFA) and the teams agreed to cover half the cost but failed to honour that agreement.
According to committee chairman Sampson, a provision making it a criminal offence to stand up in the stands or move around during the game to another seat was also dropped.
A provision making it a criminal offence to enter the grounds intoxicated or to cover one’s face in and around the stadium was agreed upon unanimously.
Also removed from the bill was the provision that if a fan was banned from entering the grounds due to repeated offence, he had to stay at home and wear an ankle monitor.
“All the parties agreed on a lot of the issues raised and also that football violence must be tackled with”, Sampson told the press after the committee session.
