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STRAPPED

PAOK president takes a gun onto the pitch to argue with referee

The Greek league match between PAOK and AEK had to be suspended after a pitch invasion and the home side's president taking a gun onto the field

By Jack Kennedy
12th March 2018, 8:58 am

And we thought the scenes at West Ham were bad.

In Greece they take their football a whole lot more seriously than just standing waving a corner flag around.

PAOK’s crunch league match against AEK yesterday had to be suspended after a pitch invasion and a gun being brought onto the pitch.

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What are you going to do with that mate?
Getty Images - Getty
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What are you going to do with that mate?

PAOK were hosting top of the table AEK and could have cut their lead to two points with victory but after the referee disallowed a PAOK goal in the final minutes everything descended into chaos.

Firstly the players protested to the referee for several minutes before fans got over the barriers and invaded the pitch, by this point things were bad but things were about to become a lot more serious because of PAOK’s president Ivan Savvidis.

So angry with the referee’s decision Savvidis stepped onto the pitch with a gun inside the holster on his belt.

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The bloke behind him looks pretty terrified
AP:Associated Press
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The bloke behind him looks pretty terrified

Like I said, they take their football very seriously in Greece.

Can you imagine the scenes in England if Daniel Levy or Roman Abramovic ran onto the pitch to have it out with Mike Dean carrying a gun?

According to a report from MARCA, Savvidis went straight towards the referee to argue the disallowed goal.

Obviously the referee Georgios Kominis and his colleagues fled the pitch immediately and headed straight down the tunnel.

I doubt any of the players mess with him in training
AP:Associated Press
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I doubt any of the players mess with him in training

We like his passion, but you can’t be taking a weapon onto the pitch
Reuters
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We like his passion, but you can’t be taking a weapon onto the pitch

AEK’s Spanish manager Manolo Jiminez told Spanish radio that Savvidis went straight to the referee, showed him his gun and said: “your career as a referee has ended.”

He added: “A man went onto the pitch with bodyguards, everyone says it was the president of PAOK, and he went towards the referee and then our bench and was threatening everyone.

“We did not worry to begin with but afterwards when you see the gun you think ‘if he was going to do something crazy he could have taken it out.

“To begin with we did not know he had the gun on his belt but that is also not the most important thing as maybe he is authorised to have it, what is not normal is for a president to go onto the pitch and threaten the referee.”

Wow, just wow.

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