Police federation calls for halt to all sporting leagues due to hooliganism
The country’s police federation has called on the government “to immediately stop all sporting leagues” until the criminal activity associated with them ceases.
The call from the Panhellenic Federation of Police Employees (POASY) comes after a 31-year-old police officer suffered series injuries when he was hit by a naval flare fired by volleyball hooligans after a game in Athens. He remains in hospital in a medically induced coma.
“We call on the Minister of Citizen Protection and the Chief of the Greek Police to immediately stop the deployment of police forces for any sporting activity, without any delay and without any excuse,” POASY said in a statement.
It also called on the justice system “to intervene immediately and look for those responsible, however high they may be … who essentially act as moral perpetrators in murderous actions.”
Describing the hooligans as “herds of two-legged hooligans with animal instincts,” the federation said Greek sports has become a “refuge for all kinds of criminal subjects who use this pretext to manifest their most inhumane and vicious instincts.”
The prime minister will chair an emergency meeting on Saturday morning on violence in sports.
