A disputed goal at the end of a Greek league match on Sunday between leaders AEK and title rivals PAOK led to a pitch invasion by one of the team owners, who appeared to be carrying a gun.
Fernando Varela scored in the 90th minute, putting hosts PAOK ahead 1-0 in the northern city of Thessaloniki.
The referee signaled a goal, but then seemed to disallow it for offside.
Photo: AP
PAOK owner Ivan Savvidis came on the pitch twice and was accompanied by bodyguards.
On the second occasion, when he was not wearing an overcoat, Savvidis appeared to be carrying a pistol which was in its holder.
AEK officials claimed Savvidis threatened the referee during his first foray onto the pitch, before being pulled away.
They claim he also threatened AEK operations manager Vassilis Dimitriadis.
AEK said they would file a complaint with FIFA and UEFA.
“After what happened today, PAOK chairman Ivan Savvidis is preparing all necessary procedures to protect the team and all his collaborators from the threats and attacks they have been subjected to,” PAOK said in a statement.
The match was finally abandoned after more than two hours and the stadium emptied of fans.
Adding to the widespread confusion, there were claims that the referee, Giorgos Kominis, had actually allowed the goal.
The score at the time of abandonment remains uncertain — 0-0 or 1-0 to PAOK — with the referee’s report still to come.
AEK claimed that the atmosphere had become too threatening to resume, while the referee was reportedly in favor of resuming.
PAOK’s previous home game never started after Olympiakos coach Oscar Garcia was hit in the face by a cash register roll.
The latest incident has thrown the outcome of the season into further disarray.
“Images of team owners invading the pitch armed are setting back soccer for years,” Greek Deputy Minister for Sports Giorgos Vasileiadis said in a statement after the game. “We will not allow anyone to divert us from our task, even if we have to, in consultation with UEFA, to take difficult decisions.”
That has been widely interpreted as a threat to suspend the entire league.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier