By Con Stamocostas
August 31st 2008 @ 12:13am
Loading ...The day Cypriot football conquered the Greeks
One of the best stories of the recent Champions League Qualifiers is that a team from the small Island of Cyprus Anorthosis Famagusta, population less than 1 million, has made the groups stages of the Champions League.
To get there they beat Austria Vienna over 2 legs then faced Greek champions Olympiakos. In the first leg Anothosis beat the Greek Champions 3-0 at home.
With Cypriot pride fueling Anorthosis’ qualifying campaign, the return leg in Piraeus was billed as “the most important match in Cypriot football history.”
Before the match in Greece several light injuries were reported and one supporter was taken to hospital as police in full riot gear tried in vain to shield the visiting Cypriot supporters who were stoned as they got off the train by a mob who had gathered on the facing platform.
Television pictures showed Anorthosis fans draped in Greek flags, ducking and sprinting for shelter under a rain of stones, while riot police clashed with the hooligans.
“You’re animals,” one Cypriot fan screamed at a Greek television camera. “We weren’t even treated like this in Turkey,” he said referring to the Famagusta club’s high octane visit to Trabzonspor in 2005 where they Turkish team 3-1 in the first leg of their second round Champions League qualifying match. They lost the second leg 1-0 in Turkey, but progressed 3-2 on aggregate.
Inside the stadium, fans taunted the Cypriot refugee club as “Ottomans”.
The Greeks only managed a 1-0 home win giving Anorthosis a 3-1 aggregate victory and the first time a Cypriot side has made the champions league group stages.
After the game Anorthosis Coach Timur Ketsbia former Newcastle United and AEK Athens player said “This win belongs to the players. They faced a great team such Olympiakos and came out as winners. If you asked me, these players won the Champions League today!”
What makes this victory more remarkable is that Anorthosis was founded in Famagusta in January 30th 1911. After the Turkish invasion of Northern Cyprus in 1974, Anorthosis became a refugee team and is temporarily based in Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium in Larnaca a part of Cyprus that is not occupied by Turkey.
Anorthosis Home Stadium in occupied Famagusta is G.S.E. (Gymnastic Club Evagoras) which has been abandoned and has been in bad condition since 1974. The reward for making the group stages are games against another Greek side Panathanikos, Jose Mourinho’s new side Inter Milan and the German side Werder Bremen.
The results of Cypriot sides beating Greek teams didn’t end there with Omonia Nicosia beating Nathan Burns new team AEK Athens which also contained Brazilian Star Rivaldo. Amonia beat AEK in Greece in the first leg 1-0 and drew in Cyprus 2-2. Amonia Nicosia now faces Manchester City in the next stage.
I have a mixed background half Geek and half Cypriot and I was pulling for the underdogs Cypriots in these games.
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Spiro Zavos said | August 31st 2008 @ 9:41pm | Report comment
Fascinating stuff, Con. I still don’t get it with the ultra extreme and often violent behaviour by football fans. It’s as if the game is a proxy for the sort of warfare they’d really like to have, and indeed sometimes put on with the opposing spectators. What is it in football that produces this sort of behaviour?
Benjamin said | August 31st 2008 @ 10:26pm | Report comment
Spiro, there is nothing per se in football that creates football hooliganism. Perhaps in countries like Russia or Croatia where there has been recent internal strife football is very tribal, and thus there is a regional pride. However If you were to examine British football hooliganism some of Britain’s most notorious hooligans wouldn’t even watch the game. Some would, whilst others would plot up in a pub waiting for the post-match extremities. Whilst some would undoubtedly hang on geographical steretoypes and take great pride in their team others, perhaps the majority, were involved purely for the ‘knuckle’ and wouldn’t even know the offside law. It shouldn’t be forgotten that hooliganism originated in GB and its genesis lay in a reaction to society and politics. All other European varieties, as copycat versions, had to draw on their own motivation and thus it is too simple too suggest that hooliganism is a natural conclusion of football.
Con Stamocostas said | September 1st 2008 @ 8:47am | Report comment
not sure why people hooliginise Spiro but i suspect it is the same part of the brain that makes teenagers throw rocks at cars on the highway, or rugby and afl players that glass their girlfriends.
sometimes people go crazy without reason or logic.
maybe as simple as boredom at the game no action.
Benjamin said | September 1st 2008 @ 8:49am | Report comment
The key difference there is that hooliganism is often very well organised.
True Tah said | September 1st 2008 @ 8:59am | Report comment
Con,
which rugby player glassed his girlfriend?
Re: crowd violence, the worst offenders are East Europeans (Serbia, Slovenia, etc.) and Spanish given their behaviour towards Africans…its not restructed to futbol, as Lewis Hamilton was heckled by the Spanish at a GP race there.
Re: East Europeans, I guess their countries are largely homogenous, and I guess there are not large numbers of immigrants from outside Europe, they are probably a bit insular, relative to England, France and Germany.
Benjamin said | September 1st 2008 @ 9:01am | Report comment
Tah, Greg Bird.
dasilva said | September 1st 2008 @ 10:12am | Report comment
What they say about sports? War minus the shooting
We don’t see fighting like that in AFL and Rugby as Australia is quite a peaceful countries and have relatively less ethnic tensions. Its just the fact that countries with lot of class/ethnic tension has football as the most popular sports and therefore used football as a proxy for class and ethnic warfare. If there was a lot of say interstate tension or clubs being define as a rich or poor or a particular race in AF/l and Rugby (thankfully there isn’t) and Australia probably would see more of those violence. Unfortunately in Football there are ethnics clubs and some race has strong animosity with other races, You can’t take it out in the real world so you take it out in the football field.
Con Stamocostas said | September 1st 2008 @ 10:34am | Report comment
It’s not just football that drives fans crazy in Europe. A lot of the big football teams in Europe have basketball and European handball teams and the hooliganism spreads into those sports. It’s not rare to see fights and flares going off at basketball matches.
I guess it thousands of years tribalism and good old fashion hate for the other team. Usually it’s as simple as north vs south, east vs west and rich vs poor.