By George Georgakopoulos

One of the most historic Greek soccer clubs, Aris of Thessaloniki, is ever deeper in relegation trouble as not only did it suffer a 3-1 loss at fellow struggling Veria on Monday for the Super League, but its traveling fans also forced the referee to stop the game four times due to pitch invasions.

Aris led early in the second half through substitute Nikos Angeloudis, but Veria equalized via Nikos Kaltsas and scored twice in injury time with Kaltsas again and Michael Olaitan to go four points clear of Aris, that is in the relegation zone along with bottom club Kerkyra.

The game started with a 17-minute delay as the referee had to wait for Aris fans to clear the pitch, but also had to stop play in the 50th, 83rd and 96th minute because Aris fans stormed in at will.

Eventually the officials came out of the locker rooms to play one more minute in the end in order to avoid abandoning the game, which would have had devastating consequences for Aris. Even so, the Thessaloniki club is facing a huge fine and a stadium ban.

A 27-year-old fan was arrested, police announced.