Greek club owner gets 3-year ban for pitch invasion

THE owner of Greek club PAOK has been banned for three years after storming onto the pitch with a holstered gun on his belt, league organizers said.

PAOK was also docked 3 points and fined for Ivan Savvidis’ actions at the end of a match against AEK Athens, meaning it drops to third place in a tight championship race with AEK and Olympiakos.

The ruling also includes a 100,000-euro (US$123,000) fine for Greek-Russian businessman Savvidis and a separate 63,000-euro fine for PAOK.

PAOK, based in the northern port of Thessaloniki, said it will appeal.

Also yesterday, the monitoring committee of global football body FIFA recommended the immediate suspension of Greece’s football federation, according to a letter leaked to Greek media.

The Greek league will resume tomorrow after being suspended on March 12 in the wake of the Savvidis incident. Athens-based AEK now has a commanding lead at the top with 57 points followed by Olympiakos on 50 and PAOK (49).

The clubs have agreed to a list of government demands, including point deductions and automatic relegation, for clubs responsible for violence.

Savvidis, a 58-year-old tobacco industrialist and a former lawmaker with the party of Russian president Vladimir Putin, stormed onto the pitch to confront the referee in protest at a 90th-minute disallowed goal in what was then a top-of-the-table clash against AEK Athens.

His club said: “The penalty is harsh and (was made) under the pressure of a targeted communication storm against PAOK. We are appealing and expect to be judged on the basis of actual facts.”

It said Savvidis had the support of “the entire family of PAOK, stronger and more determined than ever”.

The Greek Super League docked PAOK 3 points from this season and 2 from next season, and ordered it to play the next 3 home matches without spectators.

The league banned the club’s football director Lubos Michel for 3 months and fined him 15,000 euros for threatening the referee during the AEK match.

Greek football has perennially been plagued by violence and match-fixing.

The head of a FIFA committee set up last July to monitor the Greek federation, Herbert Hubel, recommended in his report to FIFA’s leadership that Greece, the 2004 European champion, be excluded from international competition.