Hooligans mar PAOK’s handball cup triumph
PAOK won its second Greek Cup in handball beating AEK 29-27 in Sunday’s final in Thessaloniki, but the clashes between AEK fans and the police as well as the exchange of lethal flares between the two sets of fans and their clash the day before illustrated that Greek hooligans do not need soccer or basketball games to wreak havoc on any given Sunday.
The match was twice abandoned “definitively”, but the game’s authorities changed their mind as many times and eventually allowed the final to go ahead from the 17th minute when the referees had called for the evacuation of the stands.
At least five AEK fans were injured in the effort of the police to contain the 1,000 supporters of the Athens club who were eager to face off with those of PAOK. Both sets hurled flares against one another that could have easily killed someone in the indoor arena.
On Saturday AEK and PAOK fans clashed at Stavroupoli, an area of Thessaloniki, with six people reported injured.
Meanwhile police announced it prevented a clash between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos hooligans at Agrinio, where the final of the women’s volleyball cup took place between the two clubs. The authorities made sure they kept the fans out of the western Greek city and confiscated dozens of flares, wooden sticks etc as well as six Molotov cocktails.
Olympiakos won the final and the Cup with a 3-0 score.
