Greek Super League meeting sparks presidential bust-up
ByReuters
Published 24/02/2015 at 22:59 GMT
A Greek Super League board meeting ended abruptly on Tuesday when a verbal spat between the presidents of Olympiakos Piraeus and Panathinaikos sparked a violent scuffle.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
The meeting between the presidents of all Greece's top flight clubs came to a premature end when a dispute between Olympiakos supremo Evangelos Marinakis and Panathinaikos chief Giannis Alafouzos ended in an altercation.
Alafouzos told reporters his deputy Vasilis Konstantinou suffered a cut lip from a blow by one of Marinakis's bodyguards.
"We were assaulted," he said. "Mr Marinakis threw a glass of water at me and then his bodyguard threw a punch at Mr Konstantinou. I cannot believe that a Super League board meeting had such violence."
The incident happened after an angry exchange between the two men, with tensions high following Panathinaikos's 2-1 derby win over Olympiakos two days ago.
Greece's Sports Minister Stavros Kontonis has scheduled a meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday, as well as a further meetings with Super League president Giorgos Borovilos.
This has fuelled media reports that the state will seek a suspension of the Greek league as part of a crackdown on violence.
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"We have a meeting tomorrow with Mr. Kontonis which aims to look at the problems we have and he will inform us of the decisions taken," said Borovilos.
"We can't hide the fact that there was an incident at today's meeting and that's why it was interrupted. We have many problems to solve in Greek soccer, but we won't solve them with these kinds of actions."
If the Super League is suspended it will be the third time this season that professional soccer in Greece has been shut down.
Matches were halted for one week last September following the death of a soccer fan after violent clashes at a third division match between Ethnikos Piraeus and Irodotos.
The authorities then suspended matches again last November after Christoforos Zografos, assistant director of the Central Refereeing Committee (KED), was taken to hospital following a violent assault.
Successive governments and soccer authorities have tried and failed to stamp out crowd violence in Greek football.
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