Greek probes into soccer hooliganism find links to drugs, extortion and arson
Police launched probes into the hooliganism that killed George Lyngeridis and that had moved beyond soccer stadiums, but also into links between some violent fans and criminal gangs.
These links, they believed, were ramping up the aggression.
While the vast majority of sports fans in Greece are peaceful, evidence collected by police and seen by Reuters alleges hardcore fans, who follow their clubs across different sports, were involved in smuggling drugs, or linked to gangs extorting protection money from businesses and arson.
"[The gangs] used sports as an alibi," Sports Minister Yiannis Vroutsis told Reuters. "They used clubs as a cover for their illegal acts."
Police have made dozens of arrests, with the latest coming on Monday.
The fan groups' hierarchies and discipline "offered the conditions for criminal organisations to thrive within them," Supreme Court Prosecutor Georgia Adilini has said. Police officials told Reuters gangs can emerge within fan groups or infiltrate them to sell drugs, or seek new recruits.
On December 7, 2023, some fans of Olympiacos soccer club moved a bag of flares and makeshift explosives from a storage room at their soccer stadium to the venue for a women's volleyball derby against Panathinaikos, a police probe found.
"We'll kill you!" the crowd shouted, according to prosecutors, during an attack on police that led to the fatal injury of Lyngeridis, who was hit by a flare.
Last month, a Greek court convicted a 20-year-old Olympiacos fan of manslaughter and gave him a life sentence.
Lyngeridis' mother EvgeniaStratou said her policeman son never expected to be in such danger. "That day, it wasn't that simple. They were organised, coordinated."
FANS CHARGED
In a separate investigation, dozens of Olympiacos fans have been charged with setting up a gang, extorting street vendors, possessing weapons and orchestrating assaults. They have denied wrongdoing, their defence lawyers have said.
The soccer team's official fan club Gate 7 has condemned the attack and said it has never incited violence.
The investigation extended to the top echelons of the club and Evangelos Marinakis, chairman of Olympiacos soccer club, is set to stand trial in the coming months with four board members.
They face misdemeanour charges related to inciting sports-related violence and of abetting a criminal group.
Marinakis and the other board members deny any wrongdoing or knowledge of criminal activity. Marinakis' lawyers declined to comment to Reuters on the case for this article but have called the accusations completely baseless in the past. Olympiacos has said it takes an unwavering stance against all violence.
Gate 7 member Akis Vardalakis, 58, called the case a government witch hunt.But he noted a rise in aggression around sport. "Sports fandom is a mirror of society," he said.
EXTORTION, DRUGS
In July 2024, police dismantled a ring extorting protection money from at least 76 Athens restaurants and night-clubs. The gang was also hired by Panathinaikos fans to attack fellow team fans in a war for control, police allege in the documents.
Panathinaikos' only legal fan club PALEFIP condemns all violence and vets new members, its president Gerasimos Menegatos said. PALEFIP could not comment on the extortion, he added.
In December 2024, police dismantled a gang that imported cocaine and cannabis from Spain. Among core members were allegedly fans of soccer team AEK, previously involved in violence and robberies, the documents stated.
In 2020-2021 alone, the group imported about 1.4 tonnes of cannabis and 30 kilograms of cocaine. Their estimated profits topped 7 million euros ($8.07 million).
George Katsadimas, a legal representative for AEK's fan club, said the case did not concern the fan club but a few individuals who also support the team. The legal fan club condemns any form of violence and its members are not involved in any illegal activity, he said.
Last month, police arrested 24 people, allegedly fans of soccer team PAOK in the northern city of Thessaloniki, accused of selling drugs at matches.
"The alleged criminal group, which included some random PAOK supporters but also individuals who were not related to sports, has no link at all to the PAOK soccer team or its fan club," said lawyer Ilias Gkindis, who represents the fan club.
Those in the legal fan club have nothing to do with illegal acts. "They are people who passionately love sports and believe that criminal activity, particularly drug-related, has no place in the fan club or in sports fandom," he added.
Greece's judicial system has several preparatory stages and the compilation of charges does not necessarily mean an individual will face trial.
LEGACY OF DEBT CRISIS
Older fans said they noticed a rise in aggression since the 2009-2018 debt crisis, that left a young generation without work and with little prospects.
"Sports fandom has always been a hybrid space," said Anastassia Tsoukala, a security and sports violence analyst and former associate professor of criminology.
A young person can develop other affiliations within a group of fans, and may be pushed into crime in the desire to belong more deeply to a group, climb its hierarchy and make a living, she said.
Greece in recent years cut the number of legal fan groups from dozens to just eight, increased stadium security and toughened penalties for clubs and sentences for hooliganism.
Since February 2024, some 96 soccer matches have been played behind closed doors and authorities imposed fines worth about 1 million euros on clubs, according to government sources.
Police monitor around 300 "high-risk" hardcore fans in each major club, a police source said.
Vroutsis said reforms have been successful, while analysts argue brawls have merely shifted beyond the soccer stadiums. Police data shows 700 cases of sports-related crime annually. Critics and victims of the violence say more needs to be done.
"Unlike other European countries, in Greece we have never adopted primary prevention. We have never looked at the profile of perpetrators to reduce that type of criminality in the long term. We are only focused on repression," said Tsoukala.
Among those campaigning for change is Aristidis Kampanos, who went into politics after his son Alkis was stabbed to death in August 2023 in Thessaloniki.He was one of three people killed in sports-linked violence in 2022-2023.
"The clean-up I want is not just a job for the state. We must all participate, including club presidents and fan clubs."
Sport must be put back in the hands "of families, pure fans, and those who truly love soccer," he said.
($1 = 0.8669 euros)
(Reporting by Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou, additional reporting Alexandros Avramidis; Editing by Edward McAllister, Alexandra Hudson)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
12 minutes ago
- The Star
Mozambique seeks to prosecute opposition leader over post-election unrest
FILE PHOTO: Mozambique opposition leader Venancio Mondlane speaks to the media as he arrives at the Maputo International Airport, after fleeing in the days following a hotly contested election in October that sparked demonstrations in which dozens of protesters have since been killed in the capital Maputo, Mozambique, January 9, 2025. REUTERS/Regulo Cuna/File Photo MAPUTO (Reuters) -Mozambique is seeking to prosecute the country's main opposition leader, Venancio Mondlane, over civil unrest that followed a disputed election last year, a document presented to Mondlane by prosecutors showed. Mondlane, who says President Daniel Chapo of the long-ruling Frelimo party won the election through vote-rigging, was summoned by prosecutors on Tuesday. He was shown the 40-page document laying out a series of accusations including that he incited the unrest. An adviser to Mondlane shared the document with Reuters on Wednesday and said the opposition politician denied all the prosecutors' accusations. Prosecutors in the resource-rich Southern African country declined to comment. The post-election protests, in which more than 300 people were killed, were the largest against Frelimo since independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. Frelimo denies allegations of electoral fraud, though Western observers say October's vote was not free and fair. There had been indications that Chapo and Mondlane were looking to build bridges, as the two politicians met for talks in March and again in May. Chapo also launched a "national dialogue" and invited Mondlane to serve on a presidential advisory body. Louw Nel, a political analyst at Oxford Economics Africa, said attempts to prosecute Mondlane would "weigh on the political compromise Mozambique's political actors reached in March". (Reporting by Manuel Mucari and Custodio Cossa; Additional reporting by Kopano Gumbi;Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
The Star
42 minutes ago
- The Star
UK police on alert for immigration protests near London this weekend
Police patrol during an anti-immigration protest, in London, Britain, October 26, 2024. REUTERS/Chris J Ratcliffe LONDON (Reuters) -British police will have hundreds of officers on duty this weekend to deal with protests linked to immigration, a regional police chief said on Wednesday, amid worries over possible rioting. Ben-Julian Harrington said he was aware demonstrations were being advertised for Saturday and Sunday in Epping, in the county of Essex to London's northeast, after protests over the last week which resulted in violent disorder offences. "We'll have a robust policing operation. Essex is safe. You will have hundreds of officers on duty," Harrington, the Essex chief constable, told a press conference. The protests occurred outside the Bell Hotel in Epping, about 20 miles north of London, that has been used to house asylum seekers. Five men have been charged with incidents of violent disorder in recent days, after police made 10 arrests following damage to vehicles and protesters throwing projectiles that injured eight officers. The police alert follows nationwide rioting last summer when racist unrest involving far-right supporters broke out after false reports on social media that a suspect in the murder of three girls was a radical Islamist migrant. The anniversary of those murders in Southport is July 29. Essex Police's focus is on protecting communities while allowing peaceful protest to take place, Harrington said. The Epping hotel has become the focal point for some anti-immigration protesters and pro-immigration groups after an Ethiopian asylum seeker living there was charged with sexual assault, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity. He denies the charges, according to a BBC report. The man had arrived in Britain by boat from northern Europe eight days before the alleged incident on July 7, the BBC said, adding he had been remanded in custody. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to stop thousands of migrants arriving in Britain via small boats, but is struggling to do so. Official data published earlier this month showed nearly 20,000 asylum seekers arrived on small boats in the first six months of the year, marking a record high for the period. (Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Mark Heinrich)
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Microsoft server hack has now hit 400 victims, researchers say
FILE PHOTO: A view shows a Microsoft logo at Microsoft offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris, France, March 25, 2024. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File photo WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A sweeping cyber-espionage campaign organization centered on vulnerable versions of Microsoft's server software has now claimed about 400 victims, according to researchers at Netherlands-based Eye Security. The figure, which is derived from a count of digital artifacts discovered during scans of servers running vulnerable versions of Microsoft's SharePoint software, compares to 100 organizations cataloged over the weekend. Eye Security says the figure is likely an undercount. "There are many more, because not all attack vectors have left artifacts that we could scan for," said Vaisha Bernard, the chief hacker for Eye Security, which was among the first organizations to flag the breaches. The spy campaign kicked off after Microsoft failed to fully patch a security hole in its SharePoint server software, kicking off a scramble to fix the vulnerability when it was discovered. Microsoft and its tech rival, Google owner Alphabet , have both said Chinese hackers are among those taking advantage of the flaw. Beijing has denied the claim. The details of most of the victim organizations have not yet been fully disclosed. Bernard declined to identify them. (Reporting by Raphael Satter; Editing by Jan Harvey and Mark Porter)
