Measures against pitch violence

The nineteenth session of the Committee on Defence and Security, held on 19 June 2003, saw discussion of the Bill on Preventing Violence and Improper Behaviour at Sports Events, as well of amendments submitted to the Bill. In the name of the submitter, the Serbian Government, the session was attended by the secretary of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, Slobodan Miletic.

The bill contains measures designed to prevent violence at sports grounds and details the competencies of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as those of sports organisations, societies, associations and other legal and physical entities dealing with the organisation of sports events. A new criminal offence is introduced in the Bill - Violent Behaviour at a Sports Event - and the penalty for it is imprisonment of between three months and five years. A protective measure of banning the offender from attending sports events, for between three months and one year, is also foreseen. The Bill also defines heightened-risk sports events and bans the sale of alcoholic beverages at the approaches to, in the immediate vicinity of, and in the actual venue for three hours before the start of a heightened-risk sports event, as well as during such an event.

Members of the Committee adopted the Bill in principle and accepted a number of amendments which did not fundamentally change the Bill, and which were submitted by Deputies and by the Football Association of Serbia and Montenegro.

The Bill provides a basis for the prevention of violent and improper behaviour at sports grounds, and enables more efficient implementation of measures designed to prevent violence - an obligation that our country has undertaken by ratifying the European Convention on Spectator Violence and Misbehaviour at Sports Events.