The situation appears to have gotten completely out of hand. “Hooliganism,” a term used to describe acts of violence committed by fans of a sports team because of some game or another, has evolved, in certain cases, into something even more terrible. It no longer has anything to do with sports and uses traditional team fan clubs as a mantle to cover what is basically a criminal organization, with the structure and hierarchy that entails.
These gangs are basically organized crime rackets, and every so often, including very recently, the police dismantle these networks, which are responsible for drug dealing, extortion, robberies, arson, bombings and murder. They are organized, too, with a strict leadership, economic incentives and an arsenal of weapons, ranging from flares and hammers to explosives and knives. After the murders of Alkis Kampanos, Michalis Katsouris and police officer Giorgos Lyngeridis, it became clear that they are motivated by the desire to control certain criminal activities and turfs, and that team rivalries are nothing more than a pretext.
Even though the legislation on sports-related violence has become a lot stricter (with the latest batch of suspects charged with forming a criminal organization) and the crackdowns tougher, the “radicalization of young men and the links between the fan clubs and the underworld have turned the problem into a deep social wound that demands constant vigilance,” according to legal circles. Summing up a problem is not the same as solving it, though. That said, only one thing is certain: No matter what measures are taken to address the issue, it will take years before they bear fruit. In the meantime, the “bad guys” are evolving technologically just as fast as the “good guys.”
