Greece’s Superleague has been suspended indefinitely and the country threatened with a ban from world football as the government scrambled to contain the fallout from the extraordinary scenes on Sunday when the gun‑toting oligarch owner of Paok Salonika stormed on to the pitch in a fit of fury to challenge a goal.
Athens’ leftist-led administration, facing widespread criticism of the lawlessness into which the country’s league has sunk, said all top-flight games would be brought to an immediate halt.
“We have decided to suspend the championship indefinitely,” the deputy sports minister, Giorgos Vassiliadis, said after holding two hours of emergency talks with the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras. “The most important thing is that rules apply to everyone. We are in communication with Uefa and the championship will not resume unless there is a new and clear framework, agreed by all, to move forward with rules and regulations.”
Speaking hours after the announcement of an arrest warrant for Paok’s proprietor, Ivan Savvidis, the politician insisted the government would not renege on its decision whatever the “political cost”. He said: “We are not going back, we will continue the fight for transparency and a better football.”
Fifa said Greece could be suspended from world football if its national governing body fails to take “proper actions by the competent bodies to eradicate all sorts of violence in order to guarantee the smooth running of the national competitions”.
Savvidis twice charged on to the field, his holstered handgun clearly visible, during the derby against AEK Athens. In the 89th minute when the referee, Giorgos Kominos, appeared to signal a goal for Paok but then disallowed it for offside, the oligarch stormed on to the pitch to confront Kominos. The Georgian-born Russian Savvidis – one of Greece’s most controversial figures – is believed to have threatened the referee, saying: “You’re over.”
Until then, the game had been goalless. In the tumult AEK’s players walked off the pitch, and the match was abandoned.
A spokesman for Savvidis told the Russian news agency Tass: “He didn’t threaten anyone with a gun. It isn’t forbidden to carry a weapon in Greece.”
The incident has been acutely embarrassing for Tsipras. When it came to power three years ago his government vowed to crack down on tycoons and their notorious sway over the Greek economy, and has vowed repeatedly to clean up the violence-scarred professional leagues.
By late Monday Savvidis was still being sought by police. A statement on Paok’s website said: “Ivan Savvidis is preparing to take all necessary steps to protect the club and all his executors and associates from the threats and attacks they are suffering.”
The tycoon’s press office said he was licensed to carry a gun. Under Greek legislation, however, police are not allowed to enter football stadiums while armed.