The Greek government announced the suspension of all team sports events in Greece scheduled for the October 4-5 weekend, to mark the memory of the Ethnikos Piraeus fan who died a few hours earlier, having been attacked in mid-September by violent fans in a third-division soccer game.
“As a minimum show of respect to the memory of Costas Katsoulis, who today lost his life falling victim to fan violence, the Deputy Culture and Sports Minister Yiannis Andrianos has suspended all competitive games of national competitions in team sports,” the ministry’s statement read.
This will affect the Super League and third division matches in soccer, the basketball cup, the A1 division in men’s handball and the League Cup in men’s volleyball.
The 46-year-old Ethnikos fan was repeatedly hit on the head as home fans attacked the visiting supporters during the match between Irodotos and Ethnikos at Nea Alikarnassos, in Crete, two weeks ago.
Originally pronounced clinically dead and later ascertained to be in a coma, Katsoulis was taken from Crete to the 401 military hospital in Athens in an effort to keep him alive. He passed away in the early hours of Monday.
Notably, the original verdict of the doctors at the Iraklio hospital, where he was rushed unconscious, had been that he had suffered brain damage due to a stroke, and not due to the blows he had sustained by Irodotos fans, as the eventual diagnosis by doctors in Athens explained.
A prosecutor had filed charges against four people for attempted murder, which are now turning into murder charges.
For the Super League, the much anticipated PAOK and Olympiakos match will be affected, with the Thessaloniki club finally securing the League’s top spot.
Atromitos forced Olympiakos’ first loss this season in all competitions last week to a first-half goal by Tasos Karamanos.
Atromitos produced an impressive first-half performance and scored through a player whom Olympiakos had lent to the team in late August. On-loan Karamanos slotted the ball home from near the penalty spot to give his answer to Olympiakos coach Michel, who had deemed him surplus to the champion’s roster in the summer.
Twenty-four hours later PAOK thrashed OFI Crete 4-0 at home to reach 13 points from five games, courtesy of two goals from Razvan Rats, and one each from Robert Mak and Stefanos Athanasiadis, all of them in the first half.
One point behind PAOK, in second, is surprise package Veria, that saw off 10-man PAS Giannina 2-0 at home, goals coming from Javier Campora and Nikos Kaltsas.
Level on 10 points with Olympiakos and Atromitos are Panathinaikos and Kerkyra who scored victories last weekend.
Panathinaikos defeated bottom team Niki Volou 1-0 through an Abdul Ajagun strike, while Kerkyra downed Levadiakos 3-2 in the weekend’s most entertaining encounter.
In other games Asteras Tripolis won 1-0 at Platanias, Panionios drew 1-1 with ten-man Xanthi, as did Ergotelis with Panetolikos and Kalloni won 2-0 against Panthrakikos.