Hooliganism can never be eradicated in Cyprus

HYPOCRISY does not reign supreme only in political life. It also reigns in sport – and particularly football.
After last Sunday’s clashes between APOEL and Omonia hooligans, who were the first to protest and hypocritically demand a clampdown on hooliganism? The moral instigators. I refer to the bosses of the football clubs, who had cultivated and encouraged the spread of hooliganism with their tolerant stance and behaviour.
Under whose wings are the hooligans? Who finances them? Is it not the bosses of the clubs who keep the so-called ‘organised supporters’ associations’ going? Is it not from the ‘organised supporters’ groups that all the hoodlums, whom we see inside and outside stadium, come? Are the hundreds of hooligans who go on the rampage outside football grounds, throwing rocks and attacking policemen not part of the ‘organised supporters’ groups?
Club bosses have a nerve giving public sermons against violence, demanding hooligans be punished and stating “we do not want them in football grounds.” Does anyone believe them? Certainly not: the hooligans are the children of their clubs, to whom they have given shelter, support and, on occasions, stopped the police from prosecuting.
The other joke is that everyone is now attacking the police for not doing their job properly. The force had not clamped down on hooliganism, the police’s critics complain. These are the same people who viciously attack the police, moaning about violations of human rights, even on the few occasions when the police take the correct actions in order to do impose law and order.
Of course the police ought to eradicate hooliganism. But hooliganism, as had been proved in the case of the England which everyone is now citing, will not be eradicated with statements on television, public sermons, House committee meeting, wishful thinking or a break in the league programme.
Hooliganism is violence. And violence can only be effectively tackled with violence. How did the English police do it? They would arrest a few dozen troublemakers outside the football ground before the Saturday match (having taken their pictures the previous match-day) and take them to the police cells. Not only did the hooligans miss the match, but they were probably roughed up by the police as well. This tough method yielded results beyond all expectations.
The hoodlums who went to matches looking for a scrap with rival supporters, after a few weeks of police harassment (in Cyprus, the police would have been reported for violating the hooligans’ human rights) have stopped going. This was how the problem was solved.
Could anything like this ever happen in Cyprus? Is it ever likely that the police would arrest 50 hooligans who arrive at the stadium chanting obscenities against rival supporters? Would they arrest supporters carrying Greek flags that have no place in football grounds? Does the carrying of a Greek flag prove the patriotism of the hooligans?
Could the police arrest these hooligans, using a legitimate level of force in the process, and take them to police cells before the match? No, because everyone would be up in arms, hypocritically, dismissing such actions as an affront to our democratic principles. Deputies, journalists and human rights commissioners would not tolerate such behaviour.
In short, we can never defeat hooliganism, and we may as well give up our hypocritical protests.