Hooliganism has to be definitely banished: the CEV Executive Committee announces severe measures against Greek clubs

Brussels, Belgium, June 12, 2009. The CEV Executive Committee resumed today to Brussels for a very busy agenda, with special attention devoted to a detailed analysis of the various acts of vandalism that unfortunately marked a few matches featuring Greek clubs that were played during the very last European Cups season. Such censurable and blameworthy circumstances did deeply affect some games staged for the Main Phase of the 2008/2009 CEV Indesit Champions League, as well as the finals of both the Women’s GM Capital Challenge Cup and the Men’s CEV Cup held in Jesi (ITA) and Athens respectively, with a disgraceful and terrifying climax occurring at the Final Four of the Men’s Champions League that took place in Prague last April 4-5, 2009.
Last May 9 CEV had already organized at its premises located in Luxembourg an ad-hoc audit along with the representatives of the Hellenic Volleyball Federation, including President Mr. Stelios Prosalikas, as well as of Iraklis THESSALONIKI to carefully analyze the sources and possible causes of such a tremendous phenomenon which does definitely not comply with the image and style of international Volleyball competitions CEV has been constantly pursuing and promoting.
After that hearing, the Hellenic Volleyball Federation was asked to prepare and submit a memorandum outlining all the various measures the local authorities were likely to undertake in order to stop the actions of such hooligans and foster a real and definitive eradication of these reprehensible and unacceptable behaviors..
Having carefully skipped through this paper, the CEV Executive Committee unanimously agreed upon addressing a very strong blame to the Hellenic Volleyball Federation, displaying a series of severe provisions the Greek Volleyball family will have to strictly comply with for the future.
The CEV Executive Committee also realized that in spite of the various recommendations and warnings that were sent out during the last Cups season, the Greek authorities did not really intervene to put a definitive end to such censurable acts and concrete measures were not arranged in the various competition venues concerned. Therefore, the members of the EXCOM settled for a decision stating that the immediate and actual implementation of the various measures outlined in the memorandum the Greek Federation compiled a few weeks ago will serve as pre-condition for the enrolment of any Greek club for the seasons to come. Moreover, the non compliance with such a pre-condition may automatically entail the ban of the club concerned and even of all Greek clubs from any European competition for 1 up to 3 seasons in a row. As a reimbursement for the terrific damages the hooligans attending the matches of Iraklis caused to the facilities of Prague’s O2 Arena, the Hellenic Volleyball Federation will have to pay a caution standing at 50,000 €, while the CEV is still waiting for a final and accurate estimate of the harms that were registered in the Czech capital coming from the various insurance companies involved.
As far as the club of Iraklis THESSALONIKI is concerned, the Greeks will have to strictly apply the following conditions in future CEV competitions:
- their first home match will be played behind closed doors, with no fans being allowed to attend the game also for the visiting team;
- as long as the club is running through the various steps of this competition, Iraklis will have to bear the costs related to the appointment of a neutral CEV Delegate likely to attend and supervise all home and away matches;
- all measures outlined in the aforementioned memorandum submitted by the Hellenic Volleyball Federation will have to be strictly implemented and executed, or CEV will re-consider the right of this club to play any international competition carried out under its own umbrella;
- finally, Iraklis has been fined for the damages caused to the image of Volleyball for an amount of 30,000 €.