Judgment from the soccer grounds
In the 30 years since rising to power for the first time, PASOK has never been as detached from its declarations, as low in society?s esteem, as high on the scale of unreliability, as deeply defeated on a political and ideological level, not to mention as deeply divided, as it is today.
This is all evident in the constant street protests, but also in small, ad hoc assemblies of the street market, the local cafes and the taverna. Recently, these failings were seen (and heard) in the great assembly of Greek soccer, in slogans sung in unison by sports fans, irrespective of their club affiliation, and on large banners. One of the banners, unfurled at the Olympic Stadium, was seized by police following a particularly well coordinated operation.
Soccer crowds have never been indifferent to politics, and vice versa. In fact, acting much like loan sharks, high-ranking PASOK and New Democracy members and ministers have time and again written off the debts of soccer clubs, whatever their amount (Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos knows a thing or two about this), or meddling in the championship. They did so by ignoring the law in order to satisfy parochial desires and to respond to the pressures of party and local officials, in the hope of winning more votes and safeguarding their political survival. When it comes to sports, entangled interests have always felt the home advantage.
Times, however, change and soccer fans have both memory and good judgement, a fact recognized by their leaders when the latter are carried away by populist flattery.
Just as angry as the rest of society, the soccer crowds last weekend took advantage of the games to express their own concerns, to judge the political system and, ultimately, to condemn it. From Kalogreza and Nea Smyrni to Toumba, Peristeri and Iraklio, soccer fans turned made a pretext of the game and a public assembly of the pitch, not in a coordinated action, as conspiracy theorists would like to believe, but spontaneously.
By doing so, they came together, if only for a moment, shouting the same slogans (anti-government messages this time, as opposed to the anti-German slogans of the Olympiakos vs Dortmund game) or even bringing the game to a halt for a few minutes — because the governing hypocrisy dictates that sports must not be tainted by politics. So, from now on and in order to avoid any unpleasantness, soccer fans should check their indignation, along with their tickets, at the door, and reclaim it after the end of the game.
