Political parties criticise government’s move on fanless football matches

Political parties expressed concern on Saturday over the government’s decision to introduce a bill to parliament, granting them the power to hold football matches without fans.

Disy, Akel, and Edek, commenting on Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis’ statements from Friday following a meeting with football clubs and the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), all expressed disagreement with the government’s move.

Hartsiotis mentioned that the bill would empower the government to prohibit the operation of any football fan association without the supervision of the club itself.

While acknowledging that the measures announced by CFA were moving in the right direction, the government believed that “they are not doing enough to immediately and effectively deal with the problem.”

President Nikos Christodoulides’ echoed his justice minister’s concerns regarding CFA’s inaction, saying the measures taken are “in the right direction, but not enough.”

“As a state, we have an obligation to the safety of every last citizen,” he said, confirming the government’s plans to enact legislation to take matters into their own hands.

“We are not here to play with people’s safety,” he said, adding that he had spoken with the mother of a child who had been injured at a game, and that “anyone who is a parent cannot feel good hearing about what the child went through.”

In statements on Saturday, Disy spokesman Onoufrios Koullas said the government was moving in the wrong direction “by transferring excessive powers to the cabinet”.

Akel politburo member Aristos Damianou also disagreed, noting that the assumption of this competence by the cabinet harkens back to “bygone times”.

Edek’s press spokesman, George Georgiou, described the cabinet’s assumption of discretion to hold matches without fans as “unconventional and problematic”.

Commenting on the criticisms, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said that the cabinet would potentially exercise this right in exceptional circumstances. “We must all take our share of responsibility to ensure the safety of fans and citizens,” he said.

On Friday, CFA held an emergency meeting with Hartsiotis on security measures following another bout of hooliganism at the latest match between Limassol rivals Ael and Apollon, where flares were thrown in the stands.

Images surfaced of flares landing near children that had attended the match with their parents.

The meeting also addressed rumours that the government might ban all fans from attending football matches, a proposal that did not sit well with footballers. They stated that if the ban were to go through, they would go on an indefinite strike.

A ban has already been implemented to prohibit all away fans from attending matches.

From the meeting with the head of CFA and the heads of the Cyprus football clubs, it emerged that all parties seemed to be against a blanket fan ban.