PAOK vs Olympiakos FFT takes in a bitter title clash

For three decades, the Greek championship has been won by a team from the nation’s capital, and don’t PAOK know it. As the club from Thessaloniki target a first crown since 1985, FFT enters the Black Hell to see PAOK battle Olympiakos, their most bitter of rivals

Fourfourtwo is a mile away from PAOK’S Toumba Stadium. Our taxi driver has brought his vehicle to a screeching halt in the middle of a busy road, wound down his window and started screaming at a motorist in the next lane. The ensuing argument continues for around 15 seconds, both drivers shouting and gesticulating, all while blocking two lanes of the main highway out of Thessaloniki. “It’s OK – this is a typical Greek day...” chuckles journalist Elena Mpountou, who is accompanying us to the stadium. We’re here for Greece’s biggest fixture of the season, and PAOK’S biggest in 34 years. They haven’t won the title since 1985, and may never get a better chance. Top by six points, this evening they face Olympiakos, their bitter rivals in 2nd. “Tickets sold out in two hours,” reveals Mpountou, a writer for the PAOK24 website. “My phone has been ringing every minute with people asking, ‘Do you have a ticket?’” There are still three hours until kick-off but the riot police are already in position, shields and batons at the ready, standing beside armoured trucks as they prepare to snuff out the first sign of trouble. Violence has plagued Greek football for years, and PAOK’S fans have been involved in a remarkable string of incidents in recent times.

A 5,000-strong police presence was required when they took on AEK Athens in last season’s Greek Cup final. Today, extra reinforcements have been drafted in from the capital, 200 miles south of here.

The bars around the Toumba are already packed with people, drinking in the Sunday afternoon sun and chanting anti-olympiakos songs. The visitors are arch-enemy number one in Greece’s second city, dominating the domestic division for decades and scooping 19 of the last 22 titles. The hatred runs deep, as we discover when we speak to fans gathered outside Gate 4, home to the ultras at the Toumba.

“Tonight, we are going to f**k them,” shouts Christos, who refuses to give FFT his surname. “We want to make love to them and their mothers. You understand this? Tell that to the whole of Europe. We want to make love to their mothers!

“They are the biggest f**kers. That’s the only thing we remember from when we were kids: to write on our balls the name ‘Olympiakos’.”

Much of this anger stems from last season’s meeting, when PAOK led the table in late February and thought they were finally going to have their moment of glory. Instead, it proved the turning point in the campaign. The game was called off just before kick-off when Olympiakos manager Oscar Garcia was hit on the head by a cashier roll thrown from the main stand, and visiting players went back to the dressing room. The former Brighton and Watford boss would later go to hospital for a check-up, but PAOK felt his fall to the ground had been theatrical. The abandonment enraged home fans, who then rioted outside the stadium. Meanwhile, Olympiakos were awarded the points.

FFT enquires about the clash, sparking a furious outburst in Greek from Christos’ pal. “He says that they are pussies and that we f**k the whole of Piraeus,” explains Christos. “That match last year – do you know how it feels when you wait for a girl for many years, you want that girl, and when the day comes, the girl doesn’t show up? It was like that.

“Thirty-four f**king years. I’m 30 years old, and for 30 years, every time we played Olympiakos, they just came and f**ked us. Now we are going to make love – not sex, just pure love.”

Last season’s incident was just the latest in a long list of controversies surrounding this tie at the Toumba. Three years ago, PAOK were trailing 2-1 to Olympiakos in the first leg of a Greek Cup semi-final when Robert Mak was denied a late penalty and then sent off in the ensuing scuffle. It prompted ultras to invade the field, throwing flares and using a corner flag as a spear. Supporters started fires in the stands and the game was abandoned, with Olympiakos awarded a 3-0 win. PAOK refused to play the second leg at the Karaiskakis Stadium.

In 2014, a PAOK fan dumped a crate full of anchovies over the visitors’ bench (Olympiakos are nicknamed ‘The Anchovies’), delaying kick-off for an hour. In 2011, Olympiakos winger Kevin Mirallas was hit by a bottle thrown from the stands, despite the match being played behind closed doors. In 2009, Predrag Djordjevic fell to the ground after being struck by another missile – team-mates had to drag his prone body to the centre of the field to avoid a further barrage of projectiles.

Not that these episodes have been one-sided: at the end of the same game, Olympiakos goalkeeper Antonios Nikopolidis launched a karate kick at a home fan. In 2000, visiting Olympiakos supporters destroyed a bust of PAOK club legend Giorgos Koudas after the match descended into a riot and the referee was attacked. Unsurprisingly, away fans are now banned from this fixture for safety reasons.

The rivalry isn’t even confined to Greece. The Olympiakos faithful have an alliance with the ultras of Red Star Belgrade, while PAOK supporters

are friends with the Grobari, the hardcore support of Red Star’s enemies, Partizan. The union is depicted in a rather menacing piece of graffiti near the Toumba’s Gate 4, which features a man digging a grave, as Grobari means ‘Gravediggers’ in Serbian. The Toumba is nicknamed ‘The Black Hell’, and even the exterior is intimidating.

For PAOK fans, it’s them against the world. No team from outside the Athens urban area has won the Greek league title since Larissa in 1988.

“We want to destroy the state of Athens,” adds Christos. “In general, f**k Athens. If they piss us off, we can just make a special nation here, because Macedonia belongs to PAOK.

“Everyone down in Athens is against us. All the decisions go to Athens – to Panathinaikos, AEK and Olympiakos – while we are in Thessaloniki, really far away. It’s not two or three years; it’s been that way for the last 30 years. That’s why we are pissed off.”

The decisions that have enraged PAOK have taken place on and off the field. A fortnight after the Olympiakos game was called off last term, PAOK hosted AEK, who had just overtaken them as league leaders. When a dramatic PAOK winner was disallowed for offside, owner Ivan Savvidis stormed onto the pitch to remonstrate with referee Giorgos Kominos – a gun clearly visible in the owner’s pocket.

The players then left the field and that match was abandoned as well. AEK were awarded the victory, PAOK were deducted three more points and Savvidis was given a three-year stadium ban. PAOK’S then-technical director, Lubos Michel – a former referee, who ran the 2008 Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow – was also banned after reportedly telling Kominos, “You’re finished.”

Having led the table by two points a couple of weeks earlier, PAOK were suddenly eight points behind. AEK would become champions.

PAOK’S supporters insist that Savvidis’ stance needed to be taken. The Greek-russian businessman purchased PAOK in 2012 and has invested heavily during a period when several top Greek clubs, including Aris and Panathinaikos, have suffered financial problems because of the country’s economic crisis. Having guided PAOK to Greek Cup triumphs in 2017 and 2018 – beating AEK in the final on both occasions – Savvidis is a hero to the club’s fans. “He’s put in millions,” explains Christos, as he discusses last season’s controversy against AEK. “He was pissed off, so what were you expecting him to do? He always does the best for PAOK.”

Believing that Greek referees never gave PAOK a fair chance, Savvidis pushed for a major change this season: foreign officials now take charge of all the big matches. Following previous games that were refereed by whistleblowers from Denmark, Finland and Switzerland, tonight it’s the turn of a Spaniard, one Jesus Gil Manzano.

PAOK are currently top despite starting the campaign with a two-point deduction, awarded as an extra sanction for the AEK incident last term. They’ve received points penalties in each of the last four seasons: three in 2015-16 for the riot against Olympiakos in the Greek cup semi-final, then three more the season after for refusing to turn up for the second leg. A further six were deducted during that season because celebrating PAOK fans stormed the pitch in the 2017 Greek Cup Final, having fought with AEK supporters before kick-off.

Points deductions aren’t unique to PAOK, in the general chaos of Greek football. It’s been five seasons since a campaign ended with fewer than three top-flight outfits either having points deducted or being demoted.

On six occasions over the past five years, the problems have grown so insurmountably large that the Greek FA has had to suspend the league: once when a supporter was killed amid violence between two third-tier teams; once after a referees’ chief was attacked; once after fighting at a match between Panathinaikos and Olympiakos; once after an arson attack on the home of a referee; once following the Savvidis incident; and once more when another referee was assaulted outside his house.

On the pitch, PAOK have grown ever stronger. They have won 17, drawn two and lost none of their 19 league fixtures this term under Romanian boss Razvan Lucescu, the son of ex-turkey coach and Shakhtar Donetsk legend Mircea Lucescu. Last week, PAOK drew 1-1 at AEK, in 3rd, despite playing with 10 men for an hour. Win tonight and they’ll be nine points clear with 10 games to go.

“This is the match I’ve been waiting for since I was born,” 27-year-old fan Konstantinos Kikis tells FFT. “I work down in Athens and can’t stand Olympiakos. I don’t know if I can describe how I’ll feel if we win – for the next month I’ll be insane. Nothing will bring me down.”

Oliver Bondesson, a lifelong PAOK lover of Greek origin, has made the trip from Malmo in Sweden for this game; he did the same for last year’s Olympiakos match, heading home without seeing a minute of football. “PAOK fans are the best in Europe,” he says. “I’ve been to see Barcelona and Benfica, but the best atmosphere in football is here.”

As the turnstiles open, ticketless ultras begin to climb over the wall, so desperate are they to see the showdown. Riot police have blocked off the

“THIS IS THE MATCH THAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SINCE THE DAY I WAS BORN”

roads to allow the arrival of Olympiakos’ team coach, which is greeted by abuse from PAOK fans outside the stadium and those already inside, who shout their vitriol down from the back of the stand.

Even a security guard at the players’ entrance, in place to ensure calm, can’t resist joining in when he notices Olympiakos’ controversial owner, Evangelos Marinakis, at the front of the bus – sitting directly next to the driver as if to purposely announce his arrival. “You ugly one! You pussy!” he yells at the shipping tycoon, who also owns Nottingham Forest. Police urge the guard to stop. “What do you think they do to us when we go to Athens?!” he asks, indignantly.

Deafening jeers can be heard as PAOK’S team bus arrives, but they’re coming from inside the ground as Olympiakos’ players venture onto the pitch for a pre-match walkabout. Outside the Toumba, there are cheers for the home team – this time, a security guard is pumping his fists at the PAOK players in encouragement. When the players step off the bus, Savvidis is there to shake everyone by the hand. The owner’s not allowed inside the stadium, so once the well-wishes are done, he clambers into an armoured car and heads to the nearby Makedonia Palace, where he will watch the game on television.

FFT heads inside to lap up the atmosphere. An hour and a half before kick-off, the ultras’ end is already rammed. Darkness has fallen and the Black Hell is starting to live up to its name, as fans chant at the tops of their voices, jump up and down in unison and set off firecrackers. Giant flags bearing skulls are being waved around. Another displays the face of Ratko Mladic, the convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal.

A banner has been unfurled sending a special message to Olympiakos, and refers to Oscar Garcia’s visit to Thessaloniki’s Diavalkaniko hospital after last term’s abandonment. “Last year at the Diavalkaniko. This year there’s no escape. This place is your grave.”

With a capacity of 29,000, the Toumba Stadium is an old-school bowl, uncovered apart from the main stand, where netting extends right the way up from the pitch to the roof – installed to stop any missiles hitting the Olympiakos bench this time. AC/DC’S Highway To Hell is being blasted out over the PA system.

Giorgos Stasinopoulos is here to cover Olympiakos for Fosonline, and he has a concerned look on his face. The visitors somehow need to get a result in this cauldron. “This season is very important for Olympiakos, because last season was so bad,” he explains. They had claimed seven titles in a row before AEK broke that run last season. The Piraeus outfit were utterly dominant: in 2015-16, they topped the table by 30 points under Marco Silva and dropped only five points, a feat that was famously derided by Paul Merson when Silva later turned up at Hull. “I could win the league with Olympiakos,” sniffed Merson. “They’ve won it 107 times and it’s only been going 106 years.”

But Silva’s departure at the end of that campaign triggered a decline. The next season, Olympiakos went through four different managers and sacked Paulo Bento despite leading the standings. They still claimed the championship, but by only six points. Last season they had no fewer than six gaffers – Oscar Garcia arrived in January but was replaced by Pedro Martins in April – as they finished 3rd, 13 points behind champions AEK.

A few minutes before kick-off, it’s time for the pre-match show. There’s huge applause as a man wanders into the centre circle carrying a drum, accompanied by two small children. They face the ultras and raise their arms aloft for 30 seconds, copied by the supporters. Another chap walks around the pitch in a PAOK shirt, before marching towards the drum and banging it, slowly at first, then with increasing frequency. Every time he hits it, the fans shout, “PAOK!” and clap their hands simultaneously.

Eventually the tempo is so fast that the crowd begins to jump up and down, making a cacophony of noise. Spectators light hundreds of flares, engulfing the ultras’ end of the stadium in a red glow and acrid smoke, which begins to drift across the pitch. The teams emerge onto the pitch to the haunting chimes of another AC/DC classic, Hells Bells.

Olympiakos’ players could be forgiven for looking around in trepidation, asking what they’re walking into. This isn’t a place for the faint-hearted.

Ultra leaders are perched precariously on perimeter fences, vigorously conducting the songs as the clash kicks off. Within seconds, there are loud jeers around the ground as Olympiakos full-back Leonardo Koutris is fouled and writhes around in pain. Every refereeing decision is going to be contested tonight: the league title is at stake.

Just three minutes in, the Toumba erupts. Vieirinha, PAOK’S Portuguese skipper, cuts inside and crashes in an angled 25-yard effort that deflects over goalkeeper Jose Sa and into the top corner. The goal is greeted by an explosion of euphoria – FFT has rarely heard a noise like it. Even in the press box, Paok-supporting journalists are leaping around, hugging each other in crazed delight. Coaching staff sprint onto the field as Vieirinha furiously slaps the club crest on his shirt in celebration.

Olympiakos attempt to respond, winning a free-kick at the other end to deafening whistles. A green laser is being directed in the face of the set-piece taker, Kostas Fortounis, which is something that continues for

the rest of the match despite two announcements over the PA system, urging the laser owner to relent. PAOK keeper Alexandros Paschalakis is hyped up to his eyeballs, manically punching the air as Pape Abou Cisse fires a volley over the crossbar. The Manuel Almunia lookalike is the only Greek player in the PAOK starting line-up. Playing as a lone frontman is Londoner Chuba Akpom – the 23-year-old moved to Greece last August, leaving Arsenal after 16 years and loan spells with Brentford, Coventry, Nottingham Forest, Hull, Brighton and Sint-truiden in Belgium.

The ex-england Under-21 international is a popular figure with PAOK fans – and he’s about to become even more popular. In the 20th minute, Brazilian Leo Jaba swings in a cross from the right and Akpom heads the ball back across goal, allowing Dutch midfielder Diego Biseswar to tap in PAOK’S second. Cue stadium eruption number two, and now PAOK really are on course for a first league title in 34 years.

Olympiakos heads are starting to drop. Visiting players look as if they’d rather be anywhere else in the world right now. It took only 20 minutes for the Black Hell to break their spirit, and PAOK fans are revelling in their enemy’s misery. “The biggest brothel is O-o-o-olympiakos!” they bellow.

Pedro Martins decides to make drastic changes at the interval, hauling off midfielders Lazaros Christodoulopoulos and Bibras Natcho – the two former PAOK players in Olympiakos’ line-up. But it makes no difference: the Anchovies are even less potent in the second half.

The Toumba is turning into one big party, and the celebrations crank up another notch with eight minutes to go when Akpom dispossesses Cisse, sprints clear and curls home the hosts’ third, before sinking to his knees in ecstasy. It wasn’t like this at the Ricoh Arena.

Olympiakos are being humiliated. Finally they decide to fight back – first metaphorically, as Daniel Podence bags a consolation goal to make the score 3-1, which is greeted by silence from around the ground, and then a little more literally. PAOK centre-back Jose Angel Crespo, briefly of Aston Villa in 2015, goes in two-footed on Podence and all hell breaks loose. Players from both sides square up to one another and Olympiakos veteran Vasilis Torosidis has to be held back from brawling with someone in the home dugout. Riot police soon position themselves pitchside, just in case any fans decide to join in the fun.

A minute later, there’s another PAOK explosion of joy as the full-time whistle blows – fireworks go off to mark the victory and a shirtless man races onto the pitch, wearing a mask and waving a massive flag. PAOK players celebrate wildly with the ultras, although scuffles have restarted between Olympiakos players and the PAOK bench, as security usher the visitors down the tunnel. Portuguese goalkeeper Sa angrily raises seven fingers to the crowd – a reminder of the consecutive league crowns that Olympiakos won from 2011 to 2017.

“This was our worst match of the season,” says an ashen-faced Pedro Martins when the Olympiakos boss finally emerges for the post-match press conference, looking shell-shocked. His opposite number Lucescu is keeping his emotions under wraps, but he’s clearly a lot happier. “The atmosphere tonight was unbelievable,” he tells FFT. “But we know this. Every game, we know that behind us are thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of PAOK fans. We have to enjoy this moment. But there are 10 more games to be played.”

Downstairs, riot police are everywhere, ready to shepherd the visiting team out of the stadium without incident. There’s an eerie silence, akin to a wake, when the players file out from their dressing room, sadness written across their faces. Marinakis looks furious as he takes his seat at the front of the coach, staring out of the window and fixing his glare on FFT for a full 20 seconds, before the bus departs. Behind us, a PAOK fan yells abuse at Marinakis and is taken away by police.

PAOK are now nine points clear at the top of the pile, and the title feels almost within reach. What’s more, no Greek side has gone a full season without defeat since Panathinaikos in 1963-64.

“Tonight, you saw with your own eyes that PAOK are the best team in Greece,” proud supporter Kostas Barotis tells FFT. “Of course we will win the league now! We are nine points ahead – the league is ours. We will win the league every year from now on.”

Twelve months ago, there was rioting on the streets; tonight, there is only delight, relief and boundless optimism. Finally, the 30-year Athens stranglehold is close to being broken. If PAOK do become champions, the party is going to be pretty special.

A SECURITY GUARD – THERE TO ENSURE CALM – SHOUTS, “YOU UGLY ONE! YOU PUSSY!” AT THE ARRIVING OLYMPIAKOS OWNER