A Greek football fan was stabbed to death after clashes erupted between fans of AEK Athens and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb during a qualifying game, prompting the UEFA to postpone the Champions League match.
The violence that erupted overnight between Monday and Tuesday outside AEK’s stadium in the northern suburb of Nea Philadelphia left at least eight people injured.
The Greek police have arrested 96 people, mostly of Croatian supporters, reports euronews.
It is said that both groups attacked each other with stun grenades, stones, bats and other objects near the stadium
“Serious incidents took place outside the Nea Filadelfia stadium. A young Greek man was stabbed to death,” Greek police said.
The victim, who was 22 and identified by first name Michalis, succumbed to his injuries while being treated at a nearby hospital.
Among the injured was a minor who was hit in the head with a rock, ERT TV channel reported. Most of the wounded are still in the hospital, as of Tuesday afternoon (Aug 8).
Reports state that the clashes erupted around 30 minutes after the visiting Croatia side left the pitch under police escort.
After the fan’s death, Greek authorities sought the exclusion of all supporters from the match at the Opap Arena.
Croatia fans bypassed restrictions
Dinamo fans were officially already excluded under a previous ruling by UEFA. But Croatian media reported that around 200 fans travelled to the Greek capital as ordinary tourists to bypass the restrictions. Dinamo has a far-right fan group, which calls itself the Bad Blue Boys.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic dialled his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis to express his condemnation of the violence, with the Croatian government describing the clashes as “horrific.”
On Tuesday, several people gathered at the site of the fan’s death laying flowers, and leaving church candles and black-and-yellow AEK soccer scarves. Players from AEK, which won the Greek league last season, also visited the site.
UEFA says what was going to be the second leg in Zagreb next Wednesday will now be the first leg. The second leg will be held in Athens on Friday (Aug 18) or Saturday (Aug 19).
“UEFA deplores in the strongest possible terms the appalling incidents that took place in Athens last night and resulted in the loss of a life,” it said in a statement.
“While expressing our deepest sympathy to the family of the victim, to AEK Athens FC and its fans, we would like to reiterate that violence has no place in our sport and we expect that those responsible for this terrible act be arrested and consigned to justice in the shortest delay.
“Following yesterday’s violence and in consultation with the local authorities, UEFA has decided that the conditions for the match between AEK Athens FC and GNK Dinamo to go ahead tonight are not met.”
Notably, the UEFA and Greek authorities were anticipating violence Athens due to back-to-back nights of Champions League qualifying games involving visiting fans with a reputation for disorder.
As a result, UEFA had requested that no tickets should be sold to visiting fans for both the AEK-Dinamo game on Tuesday and the Panathinaikos-Marseille match on Wednesday.
(With inputs from agencies)
