Hooliganism, crime and extremism
A report submitted by Citizen Protection Minister Giannis Oikonomou to the Supreme Court prosecutor’s office last week details the criminal activities of many well-known soccer hooligans and the connections, at least of some of them, to political extremism on the left and right.
The report was part of the request by the government for judicial authorities to upgrade their investigations on hooliganism and consider all soccer fan clubs as potential criminal gangs.
After the grievous injury to a police officer caused by a flare – his life is still hanging in the balance and has had a leg amputated – the government has vowed to crack down hard on the activities of hooligans. A similar vow about hitting hard the “mafias” fighting over turf in shaking down businesses was made in May 2021; the crackdown was not a success, to put it mildly.
Hooliganism may not be confined to the biggest clubs, but the report focuses on Greece’s five biggest, three in the Athens area (AEK, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos) and two in Thessaloniki.
Oikonomou’s report contains the names of 31 “high-risk” individuals for each of the three Athens club. In the case of Olympiakos, one of whose fans, aged 18, has confessed to throwing the flare that injured the policeman, the names that stand out are those of a 26-year-old manager of a well-known trapper, a 30-year-old neo-Nazi and a 39-year-old widely considered to be the leader of “Gate 7,” Olympiakos’ hard-core hooligan club.
The report notes that several of the “high-risk” individuals have direct or indirect relations with club officials. It also says that there is a state of virtual civil war among Panathinaikos’ hooligans, with bombings of local fan clubs, among other actions.
