PAOK - Olympiakos in yet another display of hooliganism

The rivalry between PAOK and Olympiakos has gone on for many years among both the players and their fans. Their most recent match-up happened to take place last night and it was certainly no exception to the norm.

A pyrotechnic show accompanied the players' walk from the tunnel, as was expected. However, this was no normal pyro show. Not only was it of a ridiculously large scale, but it was also accompanied by some fans launching smoke bombs, anchovies and flares at the opposition's players. Yes, anchovies!

The reason behind this obscure gesture is because Olympiakos are nicknamed 'gavros', which quite literally translates to 'anchovies'. PAOK fans thus saw it fitting to blitz the Olympiakos bench with anchovies, only for the ground staff to have to clear the mess, leading to a 75 minute delay!

After 14 minutes of injury time the home team progressed to the final of the Greek Cup, winning the rivalry 1-0 (the tie ended up 2-2 on aggregate, but thanks to the 'away goals' rule, PAOK progressed). The final whistle was accompanied by absolute anarchy on the pitch, involving the players and the fans. Eventually, the riot police ended up having to get involved.

But what was even more impressive than the atmosphere of intimidation outside the pitch, was the tension between players of both sides during the game. There was bullying, gesturing, straight up strikes, plenty of swearing, bickering and clashes with the referees attempting to maintain the peace. The match ended with two red cards shown to PAOK players, but all things being equal, at least four players from each side deserved to be sent off.

Last night's rioting was the escalation of an increasingly volatile atmosphere in Greek football. The sport has been plagued by one sided referee calls, officials' provocative statements, infighting within the league and a reluctance from the police and the judiciary to root out hooliganism. There were merely 8 arrests from last nights rioting.