By Karolos Grohmann
BERLIN (Reuters) – Greece’s record champions Olympiakos should accept the sanctions, including a docked point, for crowd trouble in their abandoned Athens derby against Panathinaikos for the good of the sport, Panathinaikos president Giannis Alafouzos said.
The match on Oct. 22 was stopped in the 50th minute after Panathinaikos left back Juan ‘Juankar’ Carlos was hit by a flare as he was warming up on the touchline.
The 33-year-old Spaniard had to be carried off on a stretcher and has not featured for his team since.
The Super League’s disciplinary body awarded the game to Panathinaikos 3-0 and docked hosts Olympiakos a point, a decision the Piraeus club has since appealed, claiming no one was injured. A final decision is expected this week.
“Incidents like this, although terrible, help educate fans in not using excessive force,” Alafouzos told Reuters in a Zoom interview on Tuesday.
“Because no fan wants their team be punished.”
“Rules are simple. If any player or official of a visiting team is injured and not fit to continue in his role then the game is awarded to the other team and one point deducted from the home team.”
“It will act as a warning for future hooligans. Olympiakos is clearly spoilt. They have never been punished while all other major teams have been punished. Olympiakos has been the spoilt child of Greek football,” Alafouzos said.
The hosts said the decision to dock them a point and fine them was unfair as they do not think any players were injured. They said sanctions were issued following outside pressure without providing any details.
“He had labyrinthine concussion and vertigo. Yesterday was his first day to go and train. He got dizzy and was taken into the infirmary. He will not train today,” Alafouzos said.
The player would also not feature in Saturday’s league match against Lamia either.
This is not the first time the Athens derby has been marred by violence and crowd trouble.
In 2019, a Panathinaikos home match against Olympiakos was abandoned after their fans attacked players on the visiting team’s bench and clashed with police.
Four years before that, a game was called off before the start following violence in and around the stadium and after flares had been thrown on to the pitch.
“I think under no circumstances we should have a message where a team gets away with it because this progress that has been done…. would be ruined,” Alafouzos said.
“What will happen if such a serious incident is not penalised is crazy fans will think ‘we can get away with it and we will scare the opponents,'” he said.
Panathinaikos are top of the league, a point ahead of rivals Olympiakos after nine league matches.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
