The Greek Super League will resume this weekend after a suspension of matches was lifted
Wednesday 4 March 2015 18:11, UK
Greece's Super League will resume this weekend with matches being played behind closed doors.
The league was suspended last week after trouble at the Athens derby but deputy sports minister Stavros Kontonis has confirmed games will take place again.
The move came as a surprise, with the news revealed barely an hour after Super League and Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) officials had said nothing would be decided until Thursday.
Kontonis had been in talks all day with Super League president Giorgos Borovilos and EPO chief Giorgos Girtzikis to discuss the clubs' plans for tackling violence.
Measures to be implemented immediately include stopping games where there were pitch invasions and crowd violence, along with the levying of fines and points deductions.
From next season the priority will be "electronic ticketing, addressing violence in general and financial fraud,” said Kontonis.
"The government's decision is that this weekend's games will be held behind closed doors without supporters and then we'll look at that again for the following round of matches," he added.
"We had a long discussion and there is a road map to address and combat violence, I hope we can keep to this road map point by point.
"The road map includes measures to combat violence, some of which will be implemented from tomorrow (Thursday) and others from the new season because they require changes to the disciplinary code."
The Super League was suspended on February 26 following a pitch invasion at the end of Panathinaikos's 2-1 derby victory over Olympiakos and after a Super League board meeting ended in a brawl.
Greece’s recently-elected Syriza ruling party has vowed to eradicate the problem of crowd violence.
The latest suspension of professional matches was the third in Greece this season.
Matches were halted for one week last September following the death of a football fan after violent clashes at a third division match between Ethnikos Piraeus and Irodotos.
The football calendar was resumed before a second suspension of games came into force in November after Christoforos Zografos, assistant director of the Central Refereeing Committee, was taken to hospital following a violent assault.
