The relevant sports minister on Monday announced the suspension, until further notice, of Greece’s Superleague football championship, following yet another unfinished game on Sunday evening on PAOK Thessaloniki’s home field, between the former and AEK Athens.
The game was interrupted in the 90th minute when PAOK players, coaches and team officials hounded the referee and linesmen after a goal by the home side was disqualified with a difficult off-side call. Team owner Ivan Savvidis stormed the field with a coterie of beefy body guards and what appeared to be a handgun strapped to his belt.
Sports minister Giorgos Vassiliadis made the announcement after a meeting chaired by PM Alexis Tsipras in Athens.
Asked by reporters if a football “Grexit” was now a possibility, he said “everything is on the table, and each party should assume their responsibility.”
On Monday, police were searching for Savvidis due to an arrest warrant on a charge of entering a sports competition without authorization, but not on a weapons charge, according to reports.
It remained unclear on Monday whether the Greek-Russian investor has a gun permit for the specific weapon seen on photographs and TV footage, although permission to carry a firearm into a sports venue is considered as very rare to the point of impossible for a private citizen in Greece.
Two weeks ago another derby at the Toumba field, between PAOK and Olympiacos Piraeus, never even started, after a cash register roll hit the opposing side’s coach in the head.
