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OR Betsson and the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) organized on Friday, February 16, a conference on fan violence at the Betsson Hub, in Thessaloniki (Georgiou Andreou 56, P.O. 54627).
As part of the sponsorship for the Greek Cup Betssonheld the conference, which aimed to inform and raise awareness among the world about the elimination of all forms of violence in football.
Betsson is a supporter of Greek sports and considers it as its own obligation to be able to help from its side in any action that will contribute to the reduction of violence on and off the pitches.
At the conference that took place at Betsson Hub, issues were discussed that are directly related to what has been happening in our country in recent years and have affected its sport and not only.
The event was coordinated by Natasha Kouvela and the Christos Kiousis, who first welcomed the attendees and then gave the floor to the speakers.
On his part, its Managing Director BetssonMr Thanos Marinosemphasized:
“What we are experiencing is not something foreign to other societies and it is not our phenomenon. The same is happening in Germany, the same in Italy in the past.
And although with strong measures the governments tried with various penalties to proceed with the change, it took place when the society decided it. When Thatcher imposed the ban on English teams, she did nothing more than financially hurt the sports teams.
The change came when the product was upgraded by those who invested, to become something that would attract a different crowd and prevent violence.
This is where we gathered to highlight the issue of fan violence. I don’t think any of us have the magic solution. We need to talk more about this issue and highlight it as a social problem. That’s the only way we’ll show it right. In every action we take as Betsson and EPO, like today’s which is just the beginning, we want to wake up the world to fan violence, develop the issues that cause it and as much as possible to deal with it.
Training and education are certainly one of the main pillars for this venture. We cannot deal with the problem only with penalties.
Betsson has existed as a company for 60 years and one of the basic principles that governs the company both for its employees and for the company itself, is One Betsson. In whatever country it operates, it tries to change things for the better with the local bodies or with the sponsored groups.
This is done only by consultation and cooperation. We cannot do it alone. EPO alone cannot do this. Mr. Kampanos cannot do it alone. The whole society needs to support this project so that we can move forward. I would like to thank you all and we should all work together and not be afraid to talk about fan violence, so that it also leaves the table at some point.
We should not have it as an issue that restricts us from going to the field and having fun. Don’t forget that sport is not just about physical health, it’s also about mental health.
It’s part of the fun we have as humans. We have a lot of things to do with EPO and as Betsson and through our social responsibility we want to educate the world.”
The floor was then taken by the President of the Hellenic Football Federation, Mr Panagiotis Baltakoswho argued that: “First of all I would like to thank Betsson for giving us the opportunity to talk about so-called fan violence.
Violence is not a sporting phenomenon. It is not a fan phenomenon in the sense of stadiums only. Violence exists in society, it exists in each of you who are listening to me now speaking to you. It is a political and social phenomenon. You must eliminate its cause. However, since we are talking about fan violence, what interests me is to exonerate the PAE, to exonerate the teams, because they are punished by people who do not know how the associations and the fans work. That’s where I come from too, I started as a teenager on some link.
In football they say you can only judge if you have played. To judge a position if you have also played in it. If you’ve never been to a link you can’t know them. If you don’t know, you say that we are punishing the PAE, that is, you are punishing the unrelated, i.e. the innocent, you are trying through the innocent to limit the phenomenon of violence created by the guilty. And because you cannot catch the guilty, because there is no will and ability to do so, the innocent are punished.
This is why I came here today to say these things, in a city that actually suffers from fan violence. A living example you see him here and he is in front of you. Earlier I spoke with Mr. Campanos and told him that it would be an honor for us to have him come as a guest of honor to the Cup final, which would give us joy. For his part, he himself through his position will let the world understand that knives, irons, hammers are not the way to solve the issues of the groups.
That is why we are here today from our side, to say that the EPO has the desire and the will to create the background that will reduce the phenomenon of fan violence and this is not done by closing the stadiums. So the state should find the real culprits.”
For his part, the Head of Awareness Against Sports Violence in the department of the Sports vice-region and father of the deceased Alkis Kampanos, Mr. Aristides Kampanos:
“I would like to thank for the invitation and I promise that I will be in the final and it is an honor.
Give me back on my part to be cruel even to society itself. Two years have passed since that fateful day, when the PAOK fans, blindly guided by their wild instincts, determined the life of Alkis Kampanos. And that’s because a kid from his group called out that he’s Ares. For me and my wife Melina, time stopped at that moment. How we experience this whole situation during this time is a good question. Many times I feel like I’m drowning. I drown in pain, in mourning, in sadness and many times I want to get air. But unfortunately the air that emerges from our society has a strange smell.
How is it possible to mourn three young men in two years, to have many wounded and many, many sick people and our society remains uninvolved.
And those who wonder who the sick are. It’s these same teams fans who say I’m sick of my team.
And the minds on the bars, I don’t have a family, I don’t have a girlfriend, it’s enough that I have my team and many other things, which sound like slogans of this sick situation.
Messages that pass the earplugs of our indifference. How is it possible that this disease arose from a noble sport such as football and athletics. Sports is physical and mental cultivation.
In ancient Greece the Olympic games took place in Greece and the Greeks competed for an olive branch. But the athletic games gave way to the Roman games and then to games of clashes of teams and fans of the teams on the playing field.
The young sports fan identifies himself with the team while his views become dogmatic and fanaticism takes root in the hearts of these people. Fanaticism breeds fanaticism and fanaticism breeds violence. The football fans in the audience may consider the above positions to be extreme, but they exist and do not apply universally to all people. Events are the undeniable witness of the transition from sport to war, from athletes to gladiators from spectator to fan and from health to illness. This distorted state of the psyche and especially of the young fans, who are more easily influenced and together with the giantization of financial sizes, create conditions for specific astute people to take advantage of the given situation. Thus, delinquent individuals have found shelter within the football teams, who lead the younger children to actions for their own benefit.
And that’s when each of us will wonder what we can do on our own. The answer is simple. First we must change ourselves. We have to convince ourselves and especially our children that when we participate in a football match, we participate to enjoy the spectacle and to reward the football players and the true fans of the sport. The reward does not depend on the color of the jersey but on the effort the athletes put in and the sweat they shed to overcome the limits and themselves. Sportsmanship trumps fan behavior when fans applaud winners and losers. Even if the losing side is their own team. And that spoils us mentally then it’s better not to watch the match. There are more serious things in our lives that can dampen our spirits. Put football aside and let’s take the next step, which is accepting diversity. That of social standards, diversity of opinion, democracy. Of racial diversity and that of groups. To let go of our ego so that we can emerge. Let’s teach our children that the most important thing in our lives is our relationship with our fellow human beings and when we give love we get love. When we give hate we get hate back. Laws and punishments are not enough. If we want to change we must first change ourselves. All of us are guilty and complicit in indifference. We must all unite our voices and say that we love Aris, PAOK, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos, AEK, any team, but most of all we love our family, our homeland and our fellow man.”
Among others, the member of parliament for A’ Thessaloniki with the New Democracy party, Mr. Dimitris Kouvelas, attended the conference, while the following also spoke:
– the Deputy Mayor of Digital Policy & E-Governance of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, Mr. Konstantinos Vassilopoulos
– the Deputy Regional Governor for Culture and Sports of Central Macedonia, Mr. Christos Mittas
– the Lecturer at the Hellenic Open University, Mr. Diamantis Mastrogiannakis
– the Technical Director of the Betsson Alma Club Academies and former international soccer player, Mr. George Amanatidis
– the founding members of the amateur football team, BAM FC, Haris Milionis and Haris Tassos.
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