AEK Athens has called on European football governing body UEFA to ban Dinamo Zagreb for life after a 29-year-old AEK soccer fan was killed in fierce overnight clashes on Monday between rival supporters in the northern suburb of Nea Philadelphia.
As a result, Tuesday’s Champions League qualifying game between AEK Athens and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb was postponed.
And eight Greek police officers were suspended pending an internal investigation, while a senior public prosecutor launched an official inquiry into the deadly clashes.
The Dinamo Zagreb hooligans had travelled in cars and buses and crossed borders leading to Greece even though they were banned under a previous ruling by UEFA.
Eight fans were also injured in the extensive clashes outside AEK’s stadium while Greek police said they had made 88 arrests, mostly of Croatian supporters.
Amateur video of the incident showed chaotic scenes, with fans hurling flares and petrol bombs and clashing with wooden bats.
Fans gathered at the site of the fan’s death Tuesday, leaving flowers, church candles and black-and-yellow AEK soccer scarves at the makeshift roadside shrine. Players from AEK, who won the Greek league last season, also visited the site.
Doctors said the victim died from stab wounds.