Police remind CFA of responsibilities ahead of football season

The police sent a letter to the Cyprus Football Association (CFA), outlining stadiums’ responsibilities regarding the safety of fans, players, coaches, and other attendees during football matches, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis confirmed on Friday.

In the letter, the police called on football stadiums to fulfil their obligations to hire an adequate number of stewards and take other measures to guarantee “the smooth and safe conduct of matches”.

Hartsiotis also confirmed that his ministry had sent a letter of its own to the CFA, which referred to the 2008 law on the prevention and suppression of violence at sports venues.

That law, among other things, stipulates that stadiums themselves take measures to prevent the public from entering the pitch, and to protect players and referees.

There are also various provisions in the law regarding measures to be taken by stewards in conjunction with the police should violence break out or threaten to break out.

Hartsiotis’ words came after it was revealed that the police spent €2.7 million in 2023 on overtime payments to police officers for the policing of football matches and other sporting events.

Broken down, just shy of €2.3m was spent on police overtime for football matches, while a total of €133,389 was spent on police overtime for basketball matches and €33,796 was spent on police overtime for volleyball matches.

This year’s figures are thus far looking similar, with almost €1.5m having been spent on police overtime this year, of which more than €1.3m was for the policing of football matches and over €145,000 was for the policing of other sporting events.

The letter and the release of the overtime statistics come days after the CFA’s board of directors had decided to allow away fans to attend football matches from the start of the forthcoming season.

Away fans had been banned from all competitive football matches from January after a firecracker launched from a stand hit a player in the head during a Coca Cola Cup tie between Nea Salamina and Apoel.

Hartsiotis had reportedly been in favour of the ban being extended into the new season, but the CFA’s board of directors was unanimous in its decision.

The board at the same time amended its disciplinary rules to deal with violence at stadiums, with stricter penalties now in place for offenders.

At the same time, experts from Uefa are set to visit Cyprus in the coming weeks to provide training to police officers regarding dealing with incidents of violence at football matches.