NEA PHILADELPHIA, Greece (AP) — A 29-year-old fan was killed in in a single day clashes between rival supporters within the Greek capital, prompting European governing soccer physique UEFA to postpone a Champions League qualifying sport between AEK Athens and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday.
Eight followers had been additionally injured within the intensive clashes exterior AEK’s stadium, whereas Greek police stated that they had made 88 arrests, principally of Croatian supporters. Amateur video of the incident confirmed chaotic scenes, with followers hurling flares and petrol bombs and clashing with picket bats.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic referred to as his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis to precise his condemnation of the violence, with the Croatian authorities describing the clashes as “horrific.”
Fans gathered on the web site of the fan’s demise Tuesday, leaving flowers, church candles and black-and-yellow AEK soccer scarves on the makeshift roadside shrine.
Near the makeshift shrine, police cordoned off an space to assemble proof, pulling a picket bat and different gadgets from a dumpster.
After the fan’s demise, Greek authorities had requested that each one supporters needs to be excluded from the match between on the Opap Arena.
Dinamo followers had been formally already excluded beneath a earlier ruling by UEFA.
AEK fan Kyriakos Mantzakidis, who runs a sports weblog, stated police ought to have prevented scores of Croatian followers from touring to Athens.
“This was a murderous attack against ordinary people. Many of the people gathered in this area were not soccer fans,” Mantzakidis stated. “It is a failure of the government to plan properly … it was a good decision to postpone the game. The atmosphere was too tense.”
Seven Greek law enforcement officials had been suspended pending an inner investigation, authorities officers stated, whereas a senior public prosecutor launched an official inquiry into the lethal clashes.
UEFA says what was going to be the second leg in Zagreb subsequent Wednesday will now be the primary leg. The second leg will probably be held in Athens on Friday 18th or Saturday nineteenth.
“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 stated in a press release. “While expressing our deepest sympathy to the household of the sufferer, to AEK Athens FC and its followers, we wish to reiterate that violence has no place in our sport and we anticipate that these answerable for this horrible act be arrested and consigned to justice within 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.”
UEFA and Greek authorities had anticipated issues within the Greek capital metropolis with back-to-back nights of Champions League qualifying video games involving visiting followers with a popularity for dysfunction.
As a consequence, UEFA had requested that no tickets needs to be bought to visiting followers for each the AEK-Dinamo sport on Tuesday and the Panathinaikos-Marseille match on Wednesday.
Croatian media experiences stated that some 200 followers had traveled to Athens, possible as bizarre vacationers, regardless of the soccer ban.
Dinamo has a far proper fan group, which calls itself the Bad Blue Boys.
The clashes got here within the week earlier than Manchester City and Sevilla followers come to Athens for the UEFA Super Cup sport — the standard season-opener between the title holders of the Champions League and Europa League. The sport is being performed on the Olympiakos stadium close to the port metropolis of Piraeus.
The AEK Athens stadium additionally will host a UEFA showpiece sport this season — the ultimate of the third-tier Europa Conference League subsequent May.
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AP Sports Writer Dunbar reported from Geneva. AP Writer Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.
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