Greece suspends top league following violence

Greece's government has suspended the country's top football league indefinitely because of hooliganism.

The decision follows violence between rivals Olympiakos and Panathinaikos last weekend.

And on Tuesday a board meeting of league organisers descended into a brawl. The Greek league has already been suspended twice this season because of football-related violence.

Trouble between Panathanaikos and Olympiakos fans is a regular occurrence. The ‘Derby of Eternal Enemies’ regularly descends into violence in and around the stadium.

Greece's recently-elected Syriza ruling party says it wants to stamp out the problem of crowd violence.

Stavros Kontonis, the deputy minister for sport in Greece's new left-wing government, said that the decision would be reviewed next week, but that games would again be called off if clubs failed to respond to government demands for improved security.

"This violence is an insult to all of us and our national heritage," Kontonis said. "When it comes to addressing the issue of violence in football, we will be unrelenting."

Greek Super League president Giorgos Borovilos said: "What we have been informed is that the Super League and the Football League have been suspended indefinitely.

"We have a new government who are looking to bring this subject up for discussion and implement state laws related to it.

"The government wants games to start again as soon as possible, but for that they want to see immediate reactions from all of us.

"There will be further discussions between ourselves, the board of the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) and the Football League where we will see how we can build legislative frameworks and implement security measures to ensure football is safe."

It is the third time this season that the game in Greece has been shut down.

Matches were halted for one week last September following the death of a fan after violent clashes at a third division match between Ethnikos Piraeus and Irodotos.

The authorities then suspended games last November after Christoforos Zografos, assistant director of the Central Refereeing Committee(KED), was taken to hospital following a violent assault.