Gazzetta presents the tragic situations prevailing in the sports facilities of Syros in the year 2024.

Our visit a few days ago to Syros for the sports day “I compete – Dimitrios Vikelas”, organized by the Ministry of Sports, in addition to the actions that took place with great success in Miaouli Square in Ermoupolisgave us the opportunity to listen and talk to local actors about the tragic state of sports facilities in their place.

On an island with approximately 22,000 inhabitants, the sports facilities simply do not exist.

Even the Gymnasium of Ermoupoli Syros “D. Vikelas”, his headquarters Finika Syros, as we were informed, it operated with a special permit from the Fire Department until the team finishes its obligations in the Volley League, as there is a static problem in the facility and today only training can be done in it.

In Syros and with the data we got from the site e-kouros of the Ministry of Education, Religion and Sports there are: Six clubs in football, two each in basketball, swimming and volleyball and one each in athletics, tennis, sailing, karate, kickboxing, shooting, archery and pole vaulting.

The president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee warned us about what is happening. Spyros Kapralosin his greeting at the Apollo theater and at the central event of the actions that took place in Syros, in honor of Dimitrios Vikelas, saying: “I walked around the island and I can say that I was disappointed about the condition of the facilities. Everyone here should lend a hand so that these facilities are built and they are not in the miserable condition they are in today.”

Deputy Sports Minister, Yannis Vroutsis Referring to the case, he said: “There has been a huge effort with the same resources, there are no endless resources, they are specific, in a specific public financial environment. The state took care and, through the division of responsibilities, gave the municipalities and the regions a lot of resources to the sports part”.

In Syros at the moment there is no stadium for athletics, the swimming pool is only open when it gets hot, there is no basketball gym and all this in the capital of the Cyclades.

Katerina Thanou, who was one of the central figures of the sports day “I compete – Dimitrios Vikelas”, with the presence of hundreds of children, very aptly remarked when she spoke to the Gazzetta: “The problem here in Syros is that there is nothing stadium, so maybe today is day one to start this process. We meet the children, tell them to exercise and in their eyes we see “where are we going to exercise?”.

The chairman of the sports committee of the municipality of Syros – Ermoupolis, Memis Saginettoswas our tour guide in our attempt to introduce you to some facilities that belong to the Municipality and for various reasons are left to their fate.

Ermoupolis swimming pool

We had visited it in the spring of 2010 for the Final 4 of the Greek cup in men’s polo. Then all was well, we were still at the beginning of the financial crisis.

The continuation just reminds us of the operational problems that the expensive to maintain swimming pools had.

The swimming pool of Ermoupoli is built on the edge of the port of Ermoupoli, facing the sea. This is a bad thing, as it is a blow against the northerly winds that mercilessly hit the island.

In 2010 it was open. Now we have learned that a few years ago it was closed with a balloon. One morning, the Syrians were looking for it, the Norwegian had uprooted it, who knows if it ended up in Mykonos or Naxos.

Let’s go to today. The plant is in operation from the end of April to October. The biggest concern for the municipality’s population at the moment is filling the 50-metre swimming hall with water and making it functional again in the autumn. The process of seawater desalination is expensive, requiring 30,000 cubic meters of water at 1.5 euros per cubic meter.

What is the alternative? To draw water from a municipal well and, after treatment with special chemicals, to fill the pool.

We’re not talking about peeling tiles, rusty pipes or unmaintained light poles, and when there’s a strong wind, evil always lurks. In the facility there is space that could be turned into a 25 meter indoor swimming pool, but the big “thorn” is the financial one.

Stadium in Pefkakia

In the heart of Ermoupolis, at a distance of a few hundred meters from the Miaouli square, in the Pefkakia area, there is the place where the first and last stadium to date existed, with a 200 m regional clay court.

It is a historic site for the island’s classic sports, the Gymnasium of Syros, as the elders call it. Here in 1926 the Pan-Cycladic Games were held for the first time.

The stadium today is a large field and, in the absence of another place, it is normal that the only club on the island refers to the long distances (Athletic Cultural Association – Runners of Syros).

The truth today is that the municipal authorities have tried to make the stadium look like a stadium again. It had been tendered to rebuild and repair the 200 strong regional track, to lay tartan.

The contractor started the project, but there was an insurmountable obstacle. The limits of the ancient city of Syra and the aqueduct were reached around the stadium, the involvement of the Cycladic Antiquities Forum followed, the work was stopped.

The current municipal authority is trying to solve the “Gordian tape”, to create a training ground with a 200m track. within Ermoupolis and at the same time highlight the antiquities found regionally.

However, the residents of Syros will soon see a new stadium. In the south of the island, in the area of ​​Vari, the South Aegean Region will have provided a 200m training track at the beginning of the summer, according to the statement of the Deputy Regional Governor of the Cyclades, Giorgos Leontaritis.

Ano Syros football pitch

It is the stadium that serves the football clubs of Ano Syra, in its neighborhood Markos Vamvakaris. Here there are problems with landslides from the rock that runs along one side.

What is needed, according to the geotechnical investigation, is to install the special net that will hold the landslides. In addition, the waste that has been lying on the playing field for months must be collected.

Indoor Gym

The biggest pigeon race on the island. This is how Indoor Gym has become, and the truth is that we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw the pictures.

A facility built more than 45 years ago, with two failed attempts at repair by the municipality. How did the damage happen, when it was built, the bettas fell into the water without desalination and over the years corrosion came, everything exploded.

From the technical services, there is a temporary study of the possibility of building a new gymnasium, while also overcoming the problem of the building factor. However, the technical service is of the opinion that due to the age of the building, the preferred solution is demolition.

Outside there is an open basketball court and with a little cleaning work and rebuilding of the worn tartan it can be used.

In the municipality, there are intentions to find a solution, but here, too, the big problem is where to find the funding.
There are proposals to build basketball training camps with balloons, but what happens when the wind is 9 and 10 Beaufort.

But in Syros there is already a plan to build a gymnasium for 2,500 spectators from the Region, which will also be used as an exhibition venue.
The region’s investigation is complete, the next step is to approve the tender for the project within the next few months.