Greece’s government on Monday postponed a basketball game between local rivals Olympiacos and Panathinaikos and threatened to cancel the national championship after tensions between team owners boiled over at a match on Sunday.
Olympiacos basketball owners Panagiotis and George Aggelopoulos, and Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos clashed over the alleged use of obscene gestures and offensive chants by spectators.
The sides were scheduled to play the third of five potential end-of-season games on Wednesday, but that game has been put on hold after
Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said the owners would appear in front of the deputy sports minister and promise that this behavior will not be repeated.
“Otherwise, this year’s championship will be permanently suspended,” Marinakis added.
Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, two of Greece’s biggest basketball clubs, recently played each other for third place in the EuroLeague finals in Abu Dhabi.
Violence has plagued sport in Greece in recent years.
Two young soccer fans were killed in 2023 and 2022, and a Greek court found a 20-year old man guilty of manslaughter over the 2023 death of a policeman hit by a flare during clashes with spectators at a volleyball game.
Authorities have promised to crack down to tackle the issue.
