All this, nevertheless, was precisely explained to Minister Kontonis, in private discussions, in contradiction to what he thought he had understood.
We expressed then to the Minister, who apparently is dealing now, for the first time with football and violence issues, our fears about organized and instrumented provocations that occurred at the match Panathinaikos vs Olympiakos, which has been canceled.
Indeed we have mentioned repeatedly what has been now revealed through investigations by the Police Inland Security department, concerning actions by the organized crime, “rowdies” and “Kosovars” acting at night and in demonstrations.
What have we said, then, to the Minister? That if he wants to deal with phenomena of violence, the State should broaden its investigations in the fields of social explosions, of henchmen acting at night, in “death dates”, of violent Greek and foreign groups and their interconnection with “centers” seeking to release their actions beyond football grounds, as this is the case in several European countries, as well.
However, the Minister, astonished after listening to the grim reality, did something simple and easy: He improperly imposed to Panathinaikos heavy sanctions, for actions which neither the FC nor “Gate 13” had the blame.
Following the new revelations that reached the public eye – and “congratulations” to the Greek Police for it – we consider that both Mr. Kontonis and the sports Authorities are exposed.
So, Mr. Minister just show us how an FC alone, by using the hypocritical law, may tackle the organized crime?
How FC Panathinaikos and “Gate 13”, who dare to reveal and complain about the scandals in Greek football and the criminal gang will face that, while they are so unjustly punished in a harsh and unlawful way?
Handling it this way and by this attitude, Minister Kontonis not only doesn’t solve the problem but he swells it and becomes part of it.
For that reason we demand his immediate resignation. We also ask the Government to take care, using all its instruments and responsible officers in order to resolve this issue of major importance.
PS. As political sensitivity is scarce and rare in our country, we believe that Mr. Kontonis not only won’t resign, but is able to impose a new exemplary punishment on Panathinaikos and “Gate 13”, this time on the occasion … of causing vandalism to PASOK’s offices and arson of ERT’s van.
