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Dear friend Pambos,
Dear friend Spyros,
Dear coaches,
Dear players,
Dear friends,
It is with great pleasure and feelings of emotion that I am with you today at this extremely important event, which is part of the actions to prevent and address the phenomena of violence in sports arenas and the creation of proper fan education and behavior.
Let me first thank and congratulate my dear friend Pambos Simeou - General Manager of AEL Limassol Academy - who, as soon as he was appointed to the Advisory Committee for the monitoring of measures implemented to prevent and address violence in sports venues, took this initiative to organize today's football tournament.
My warmest thanks also to all the managers of the academies of Apollon, Aris and Karmiotissa teams who accepted the invitation to participate in this event. Warm thanks also to the Pancyprian Football Players' Association and his dear friend Spyros Neofytidis, who always stands by this great effort made both by the State and by all organized groups and bodies to address and combat violence on the pitch.
"Football Unites - We say NO to Violence". This message that you young footballers are sending out today has and should have many recipients. I am among those recipients, both in my institutional capacity as Minister of Justice and Public Order and as a citizen of this country. On the one hand, because as a Minister and a member of the Government I feel an even greater responsibility to act in this direction, which you are showing us today, and on the other hand, as an ordinary citizen of this country, I feel proud of the ethos and values that you stand for and proclaim today in the best possible way, which are none other than those of 'fair play, fair play and mutual respect'.
Dear friends,
From the very first month of taking office in March last year, I found myself in the very unpleasant position of having to deal with the violent incidents that occurred during a basketball match at the Tassos Papadopoulos Eleftheria Stadium.
As the new Government, this event was of particular concern to us and forced us to act immediately and plan for the first time, a holistic approach that has as its main pillars, in addition to repression, prevention, awareness raising, enlightenment and education as well as the active involvement of civil society.
The fact that all the stakeholders were present in this effort demonstrates both the recognition of the problem and the will and willingness to take joint and cooperative action to tackle it.
Dear footballers,
We are investing a lot in you, the future generation, who will be called upon to correct our mistakes and omissions and not to continue them.
We are investing a lot in you, the future generation, who will be called upon to correct our mistakes and omissions and not to continue them. As fans and as athletes, I call on you to uphold the values of fair play and to become the best ambassadors of the sport by always projecting the position that football, like any other sporting event, is a sport that unites and not a cause of "war", a sport in which the competitors are rivals for only ninety minutes and the only thing that in quotes "separates" them are the colours and insignia of their favourite teams. This is exactly what all of you today, competing in mixed teams, are demonstrating in practice.
Thank you very much and I congratulate you once again for today's event and wish the competing teams good luck.
(MS)
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