Soccer fans invade TV station in protest

THESSALONIKI, Greece: Some 40 PAOK Thessaloniki supporters invaded the studios of state-run Greek television station ERT 3 on Tuesday and forced a sportscaster to read a five-minute protest message on the air.

The fans left peacefully after the announcement and no arrests were made. The hooligans were protesting the decision by the Super League to dock their team three points over last month’s clash with Olympiakos which was postponed when visiting coach Oscar Garcia was hit by an object thrown from the stands.

The February 25 match was awarded 3-0 in favour of Olympiakos while PAOK were fined 30,000 euros ($37,000) and must play their next two home matches behind closed doors, including one against league leaders and title rivals AEK Athens. “The administration of ERT condemns in the most categorical manner the invasion of fans of a football team in the ERT 3 studios during live broadcast,” an announcement from the station said. The station said the action stopped the normal flow of the programme “in a deeply undemocratic act which is in no way compliant with the sporting spirit”. In the announcement, the PAOK supporters said that the decision by the Super League “was the biggest sporting scandal of all-time”. They called on all PAOK supporters to take part in a protest rally on Thursday in the centre of Thessaloniki as well as a march on Sunday before the scheduled home match with AEK.