SPORTS

Call for the league to stop

AEK president Stavros Adamidis called on the government on February 21 to put a temporary stop to the league, as Greek sport is still reeling from the incidents that stained its reputation on Saturday evening at the Karaiskaki Stadium at the Olympiakos vs Panathinaikos derby.

Adamidis asked General Secretary for Sports Panos Bitsaxis to postpone the next few rounds of the Super League so that tempers calm down before things get out of hand in the rivalry raging between the two other major clubs and there are victims.

Bitsaxis’s reaction on the same evening was to threaten clubs whose fans are associated with violence with withdrawing their funding. He also called on the volleyball clubs of Panathinaikos and Olympiakos to discuss his proposal to stage all their derbies in front of pupils.

There is also a near certainty that the basketball cup final between the same clubs will be postponed.

The day also saw Olympiakos president Vangelis Marinakis perform a volte-face when he issued a statement apologizing for his declarations after the derby. Marinakis had said that Olympiakos gave everyone a lesson in ethics.

The Olympiakos owner also asked for a meeting with Panathinaikos acting president Dimitris Gontikas in order to build new bridges between the two clubs.

However, Panathinaikos officials have made it clear after their extraordinary board meeting on the same day that they consider this as hypocritical and will not meet with him, as Gontikas stated.

Instead, Panathinaikos is going to try and have Marinakis deposed from the chair of the Super League on February 25, when the league’s organizer convenes.

Meanwhile, late on February 20 the Super League headquarters suffered an attack by seven or eight people, while another group of unidentified assailants caused some damage to the house of Olympiakos captain Vassilis Torosidis.

Panathinaikos also announced on February 21 that it will refer the case to the Hellenic Football Federation as well as UEFA, one day after its captain, Djibril Cisse, said he would let the European confederation know all about the events of the derby.

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