Greek basketball finals suspended after rivalry again turns ugly

ATHENS Greece AP Greece s regime on Monday suspended the basketball league finals between Panathinaikos and Olympiacos following on-court scuffles involving rival precaution teams Olympiacos won Sunday s meeting - leveling the best-of-five series at - The third meeting scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed The owners of both clubs were summoned to meet with the country s sports minister They will be urged to provide explicit guarantees that this situation will be brought to an end If not this year s championship will be definitively canceled administration spokesman Pavlos Marinakis explained There can be no tolerance for such pathological phenomena of violence and delinquency he added The two clubs based in the Athens area have a long and often violent history of rivalry spanning basketball soccer and other sports The latest unrest comes despite new regime efforts to curb sports-related violence including surveillance systems at stadiums and mandatory ticketing linked to state ID cards Both Olympiacos and Panathinaikos competed in the EuroLeague Final Four in Abu Dhabi last month finishing third and fourth respectively Fenerbahce defeated Monaco in the championship encounter Sunday s match at Peace and Friendship Stadium was marred by multiple incidents Panathinaikos owner Dimitris Giannakopoulos was escorted out at halftime following a heated exchange with referees Head coach Ergin Ataman was ejected in the fourth quarter after receiving a second technical foul Television footage of the encounter exhibited defense guards from the two teams coming to blows as Giannakopoulos walked out in a heated atmosphere In a report Panathinaikos called the officiating disgraceful and biased against them Olympiacos co-chairman Giorgos Angelopoulos fired back accusing Giannakopoulos of abusive behavior The guy is toxic he is the definition of violence Angelopoulos mentioned He cannot continue to be present in Greek sports and act this way No apology will be accepted he added Let Panathinaikos fans celebrate him as a tough guy We don t want people like that Panathinaikos had won Tournament of the series - on Friday at the OAKA Arena in northern Athens Source