Football fans, most of them from Croatia, cover their faces while leaving the Athens Police Headquarters in Athens, as they are being detained as part of the inquiry on the death of a Greek fan during violent clashes on August 9, 2023. (Photo by YIANNIS PANAGOPOULOS / EUROKINISSI / AFP)
Greek police were accused Wednesday of having ignored warnings about a convoy of Croatian football “hooligans” heading for Athens days before a Greek supporter was killed in clashes between fans.
More than 100 people appeared before Greek prosecutors Wednesday in connection with a deadly mass brawl near Athens before Tuesday’s Champions League qualifier between AEK Athens and Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb.
The match was called off after a 29-year-old Greek fan Michalis Katsouris died after being stabbed in clashes between rival fans near AEK’s Nea Filadelfeia stadium in which stun grenades, stones and incendiary devices were thrown.
Prosecutors said the suspects, mostly Croatian, will be investigated for manslaughter, possession of explosives and membership of a criminal organization.
Anger at the killing has been sharpened by claims that Greek police did not stop a large group of Croatian “ultras” after being warned by Zagreb that they were on their way.
The day before the killing, Montenegrin officials said, they also warned Greek police that 120 Croatian fans in 21 vehicles were heading for Athens through Albania.
Greece’s citizen’s protection minister Yannis Oikonomou said it was “inadmissible and unacceptable” that the convoy had been allowed to cross the country unchallenged, and demanded that seven officers including the head of the police division against violence in sport should be transferred to other positions.
He has also ordered an internal inquiry as prosecutors decide whether any of the officers should be charged.
Greek media reacted angrily to the revelations with the Kathimerini daily lashing the “inertia of Greek police” that left Athens “without protection from the battalion of terror”.
The financial daily Naftemporiki said “hooliganism had triumphed over the state” after “the commando raid of Croat and Greek assassins”.
Greek fans also involved
Greek police experts search for evidence outside AEK Athens’ OPAP Arena on August 8, 2023 after a Greek football fan was stabbed to death on the outskirts of Athens during a brawl between rival club supporters, with 96 people arrested in violent clashes. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)
Police arrested 104 people, including 94 Croats, six Greeks, an Albanian, an Austrian, a Bosnian and a German after the clashes.
Five men were detained at the port of Igoumenitsa, more than 470 kilometers (290 miles) northwest of Athens, as they tried to flee to Italy.
Police said around 120 Dinamo Zagreb supporters were involved in the fighting in which eight supporters were also injured. Some Greek fans fought alongside them, they added.
Social media footage showed fans dressed in black clashing amid loud explosions around the stadium after a Dinamo training session inside. Some were also armed with wooden bats, police said.
Greece has a chronic problem with football violence.
After a similar outcry following the death of a 19-year-old murdered in a fight between fans of the rival Thessaloniki clubs Aris and PAOK, the government increased the maximum sentence for football violence from six months to five years last year.
Croatia’s interior ministry said it had sent the Greek police “all the interesting information on the supporters likely to go to Greece” through Europol and Interpol.
European football’s governing body UEFA condemned “the appalling incidents in the strongest possible terms” and postponed the match until August 19.
However, the return match in Zagreb will go ahead on August 15 as planned, although the fans of both clubs have been banned from traveling to the away legs.