Panathinaikos fans turn the stadium into a battlefield

The football match between the two eternal enemies, Panathinaikos and Olympiacos, was condemned before even starting.

About 2 hours before the beginning of the game, Panathinaikos fans clashed with police outside Panathinaikos’ stadium Apostolos Nikolaidis. Fans were throwing stones and pieces of wood to the policemen and policemen were responding with tear gas turning the streets into a war zone. Sixteen persons were arrested, whereas 3 policemen were wounded.

 

Then, the fans continued the violent episodes inside the stadium resulting in a postponement of the game.

When the team of Olympiacos came on the field to warm up, Panathinaikos fans started throwing flares to them with one hitting a player of Olympiacos and the team rushed into the locker rooms. Olympiacos Vice President Savvas Theodoridis stated then that the team would not play saying “We are not playing in a jungle”.

The referee of the game, Andreas Pappas, decided to permanently postpone the match since the fans did not seem willing to stop the episodes and let the match begin and no one seemed to claim responsibility for the whole situation.

The decision of postponing the game was another excuse for hooligans to enter the field and begin a new round of episodes.

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