Today’s scheduled football match between home team AEK Athens and visiting Dinamo Zagreb, the first leg in the Champions League third qualifying round, has reportedly been cancelled, hours after a 22-year-old man, identified as a fan of the former team, was stabbed to death outside AEK’s Opap Arena stadium.
Up to 200 hooligans, comprised of young Croatians who travelled overland to Greece, as well as local supporters of another Greek club, ransacked the Nea Philadelphia district of northwest Athens on Monday evening.
As a result, AEK Athens officials on Tuesday morning refused to attend a customary pre-game meeting with the opposing team’s representatives and UEFA officials.
According to AEK FC vice-president Giorgos Kosmas, the club considers that Dimano Zagreb officials knew, a day earlier, what a portion of their most fanatic fans planning, i.e. an organized excursion to Athens for a “rumble” or simply vandalism. Kosmas also blamed Greek Police (EL.AS) for not detecting and allowing a small convoy carrying the hooligans to travel from the northern Greece border all the way to Nea Philadelphia.
Riot police and the fire brigade had to intervene on Monday evening at the scene.
Media reports in Athens on Tuesday said 98 arrests have been made in relation to the deadly incident, while several people, including a 13-year-old girl, with serious injuries, remained hospitalized.
