Greek probes into soccer hooliganism find links to drugs, extortion and arson

By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters) -When a police officer died after clashes with hooligans outside a women's volleyball match in Athens in December 2023, authorities vowed to end the violence and criminality that have plagued Greek sport for decades.

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 Evgenia Stratou 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.

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(Reporting by Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou, additional reporting Alexandros Avramidis; Editing by Edward McAllister, Alexandra Hudson)