Greek football club owner banned for three years over pitch invasion

Ivan Savvidis, the owner of Greek football club PAOK, has been banned for three years by the global football body FIFA for storming onto the pitch with a gun during a league game.

In a ruling issued Thursday, FIFA also fined Savvidis 100,000 euros ($123,000) while stripped the club of three points and fined it 63,000 euros.

The penalties came over an incident at the end of a Greek football league match between PAOK, a club based in the northern port of Thessaloniki, and AEK Athens.

League organizers said Savvidis, a 58-year-old Greek-Russian businessman, stormed onto the pitch with a holstered gun on his belt and threatened match officials.

PAOK officials said they would appeal against the ruling, especially the point deduction amid a tight championship race.

“The penalty is harsh and (was made) under the pressure of a targeted communication storm against PAOK. We are appealing and expect to be judged on the basis of actual facts,” said the club in a statement, adding that Savvidis had the support of “the entire family of PAOK, stronger and more determined than ever.”

PAOK would now sit third in the Greek league table with 49 points behind Olympiakos with 50 and AEK which leads the table with 57 points. The club has already been slapped with fines and point deductions by the Greek Super League, which stripped PAOK of three points from this season and two from next season. The club should also play its next three matches at the home stadium without the presence of supporters while PAOK’s football director Lubos Michel is banned for three months and should pay a fine of 15,000 euros for threatening the referee.

The incident at the end of the match between PAOK and AEK has sparked fresh concerns about the situation of the Greek football which has been plagued by violence and match-fixing.

FIFA’s monitoring committee on Thursday recommended an immediate suspension of Greece's football federation.

A letter leaked to Greek media showed that Herbert Hubel, who serves as the head of a FIFA committee set up last July to monitor the Greek football federation, had recommended in his report to the organization that Greece should be excluded from international competitions, citing numerous reasons, including Savvidis’ invasion of the pitch, the suspension of PAOK from the European Club Association, the suspension of the Greek league as well as continuous delays in court decisions about match outcomes.

The Greek national soccer team won the prestigious European championship in 2004 while major clubs from the country have managed to progress into the final rounds of continental tournaments over the past years.

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