All team sports suspended next weekend in memory of dead fan
The government announced on Monday the suspension of all team sports events in Greece scheduled for next weekend, October 4 and 5, in the memory of the Ethnikos Piraeus fan who died a few hours earlier, having been attacked in mid-September by hooligans in a third-division soccer game.
“As a minimum show of respect to the memory of Costas Katsoulis, who today lost his life falling victim of fan violence, the Deputy Culture and Sports Minister Yiannis Andrianos has suspended all competitive games of national competitions in team sports” for the next weekend, the ministry’s statement read.
This will affect the Super League and third division matches in soccer, the basketball cup, the A1 division in men’s handball and the League Cup in men’s volleyball.
The 46-year-old Ethnikos fan was repeatedly hit on the head as home fans attacked the visiting supporters during the match between Irodotos and Ethnikos at Nea Alikarnassos, in Crete, two weeks ago.
Originally pronounced clinically dead and later ascertained to be in a coma, Katsoulis was taken from Crete to the 401 military hospital in Athens in an effort to keep him alive. He passed away in the early hours of Monday.
Notably, the original verdict of the doctors at the Iraklio hospital, where he was rushed unconscious, had been that he had suffered brain damage due to a stroke, and not due to the blows he had sustained by Irodotos fans, as the eventual diagnosis by doctors in Athens explained.
A prosecutor had filed charges against four people for attempted murder, which are now turning into murder charges.
