All Hellas Breaks Loose: Government Intervene And Suspend Greek Superleague Indefinitely After Chaotic Fortnight Of Nonsense

Chris Wright

12th, March 2018

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With things taking a swift and sudden turn for the farcical recently, the Greek Superleague has reportedly been suspended indefinitely while the government decides to do with everybody.

As you may have seen, Sunday’s top-of-the-table derby between PAOK and AEK Athens degenerated into chaos when a late disallowed goal saw PAOK president Ivan Savvidis take to the pitch with a gun tucked into his belt.

This came after PAOK first had points deducted as punishment for their fans pelting Olympiakos coach Oscar Garcia with till rolls, only to have said points controversially reinstated – supposedly, as the cynics have it, because the disciplinary committee responsible were pressured into giving back the points to keep the title fight interesting/profitable.

Now, according to Greek outlet Ekathimerini, deputy minister for sports Giorgos Vassiliadis has declared that the entire league has been postponed as a direct result of the pandemonium that brought a premature end to the PAOK-AEK match.

After meeting with prime minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday morning, Vassiliadis addressed the media thus:

We are going for an indefinite suspension. We are expecting a new set of stricter rules for soccer, after spending three years trying to clean the game up.

It is unclear whether or not the Greek Cup will also be affected, though there is a very real prospect that PAOK and AEK could meet in the final.

Suspending the entire league seems unduly harsh on the other 14 clubs who have done nothing wrong, but it stands to reason that we simply can’t have gun-toting club presidents wading around the place, now can we?