Greece to prosecute hooligans
Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Article summary
A criminal enquiry has been launched into incidents of hooliganism at Sunday's Athens derby.
Article body
A criminal enquiry has been launched into hooliganism at Sunday's Athens derby between Olympiakos Piraeus FC and AEK Athens FC.
Video evidence
Officials reported on Tuesday that high court prosecutor Sotiris Bayias will study video evidence from the match to identify Olympiakos supporters who attacked senior AEK officials in the VIP area during the half-time interval at the Gipedo Rizoupolis stadium.
Shocking incident
The first division match ended in a 2-1 win for AEK courtesy of a Kostas Katsouranis goal deep into added time, but was marred by the attack on AEK's president, Yiannis Granitsas, who were forced to leave the stands. The victory lifted third-placed AEK to within four points of Olympiakos who trail leaders Panathinaikos FC by a further three points.
'The last straw'
Greek sports minister George Lianis condemned the assault and called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted. "This is the last straw, things have gone far enough," he said. "The solution can't be to prohibit officials from away teams from watching matches in the VIP area."
New regulations
Lianis also reported that a new law governing sport that was approved by the Greek parliament last November will introduce measures to combat football-related violence. However, Lianis acknowledged that these measures - including video monitoring of supporters - would not be implemented right away, because of the investment required.
