Football Match between PAOK Thessaloniki-AEK Athens Suspended

The match between PAOK Thessaloniki-AEK Athens, from the Greek League, was suspended due to the invasion of the playing field at the Tumba Stadium, after fans and executives from PAOK, including its president, Ivan Savvidis, became enraged when a goal by Cape Verdean Fernando Varela was disallowed in injury time.

After that, the executive of PAOK threatened the referee by telling him that "his career as a referee was over"; these words were uttered by Manolo Jiménez, the Spanish coach of the Greek team for Cadena SER.

"The president of PAOK comes down to the field, approaches the referee, shows him the weapon and says: your career as a referee is over," said Jiménez for Cadena SER.

The AEK players went to the locker room, which the referee was able to reach shortly after. In the midst of chaos, the PAOK players remained on the field waiting for the match to resume.

Before the start of the match, several altercations occurred near the Tumba Stadium and the police had to intervene due to the behavior of radical Thessaloniki fans, who threw objects of all kinds at the security personnel.

The tensions arise just as the Appeals Committee of the Greek Football Federation (EPO) has just returned the three points to PAOK that were deducted after an attack by a fan on Olympiacos coach, Spanish Oscar García Junyent, on February 25.