Riots End Greek Basketball Finals Early

As if hearing that there was a fan stampede in South Africa on Sunday at a World Cup tuneup game wasn’t bad enough, the news got even worse in Greece on Sunday. Powerhouses Olympiakos and Panathinaikos were playing in the Greek basketball league finals but the action got disrupted by rowdy fans. The game was actually called with a minute left and Panathinaikos was given the title with a 76-69 win. In the video below, you can see some of the crazy fan behavior that resulted in the Panathinaikos players being escorted off the floor as flares were flying by. At the 3:00 mark, you can see a flare get tossed towards the Panathinaikos bench. Here’s the Greek basketball finals rioting video:

Sadly, what you saw in that video was only a fraction of the negative actions from the Olympiakos fans and apparently this is the second straight year this happened when the teams met in the playoffs. Here are more details from Rotoworld:

The Greek league finals were cut short on Sunday when agitated Olympiakos began rioting, throwing plastic bottles, arena seats which they had ripped out, and even a flare directed at players and coaching staff of rival Panathinaikos … The game even started 40 minutes late after more than 200 fans without tickets invaded the arena and clashed with riot police, who used tear gas. The abandonment, just 1:03 before the end, handed Panathinaikos its eighth consecutive Greek title and 12th in the last 13 seasons.

And I thought the Malice in the Palace was bad. We’re nothing compared to that.

Sources:
Rotoworld
Video Credit: YouTube user Georgepps6