Funeral held for fan killed in Athens assault. UEFA President Ceferin to fulfill Greek PM

ATHENS, Greece — A funeral service was held Friday for a Greek soccer fan killed in an assault led by Croatian supporters that has rattled European sporting officers.

Hundreds of mourners – many sporting the black and yellow colours of the Michalis Katsouris’ group, AEK Athens – gathered outdoors a church Elefsina, 25 kilometers (15 miles) west of Athens, clapping as his white casket was carried previous them.

The 29-year-old AEK fan died from a stab wound, and 10 others had been injured when scores of Croatian supporters wielding picket golf equipment and steel bats attacked bystanders outdoors AEK’s Opap Arena on Monday, police mentioned.

A Champions League qualifier between AEK and Dinamo Zagreb that was resulting from be held hours later was referred to as off by UEFA, soccer’s governing physique in Europe.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin will go to Greece subsequent week and plans to fulfill on Wednesday with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the pinnacle of the Greek Football Federation, Panagiotis Baltakos.

Representatives of the nation’s 4 main golf equipment – AEK Athens, Olympiakos, PAOK and Panathinaikos – in addition to authorities sporting officers have been invited to attend the discussions, authorities officers mentioned.

Ceferin had been scheduled to journey to Athens to attend the UEFA Super Cup ultimate between Manchester City and Sevilla on Wednesday. UEFA has formally requested a report on the Athens violence earlier than contemplating “next steps and any potential measures.”

More than 100 individuals – principally Croatian nationals – had been arrested after the assault and have been charged with homicide, membership of a felony gang and different offenses. Police are persevering with to conduct searches in Athens and at border and transit factors, in search of Croatian followers believed to have escaped arrest.

The homicide costs, utilized in a blanket indictment for all of the suspects, are more likely to be dropped for a lot of the arrested followers because the investigation proceeds.

State ERT tv reported that by late Friday all 30 suspects – 28 Croatians and two Greeks – who had appeared earlier than investigative judges had been ordered to stay in custody pending their trials. The remainder of the suspects had been resulting from seem earlier than courtroom officers over the weekend.

Earlier, temporary clashes broke out in entrance of courtroom buildings in Athens the place the arrested followers had been giving proof associated to the lethal violence. They had been led into the buildings in pairs and handcuffed underneath a heavy police escort.

Some 200 followers of AEK gathered outdoors the courtroom advanced, some hurling bottles of water and different objects at police and tv crews.

No arrests or accidents had been reported.

Local authorities in Elefsina suspended a number of public occasions forward of the funeral service in an indication of mourning. It is certainly one of three European Union cities and cities, together with Timisoara in Romania and Veszprem in Hungary, awarded the standing of European Cultural Capital for 2023.

“The cowardly and unprovoked murder of Michalis must not and will not be forgotten,” Elefsina Mayor Argyris Economou mentioned. “His burial place will always be here, as a symbol that reminds us all, current and future generations, of the painful consequences of fascist fan violence.”

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