UEFA postpones Champions League qualifier after a fan dies in Greece

A 29-year-old fan was killed in overnight clashes between rival supporters in the Greek capital, prompting European governing football body UEFA to postpone a Champions League qualifying game between AEK Athens and Croatia’s Dinamo Zagreb.

Eight fans were also injured in the extensive clashes on Tuesday, outside AEK’s stadium, while Greek police said they had made 88 arrests, mostly of Croatian supporters.

Amateur video of the incident showed chaotic scenes, with fans hurling flares and petrol bombs and clashing with wooden bats.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic called his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis to express his condemnation of the violence, with the Croatian government describing the clashes as “horrific".

After the fan's death, Greek authorities had requested that all supporters should be excluded from the match between at the Opap Arena.

Dinamo fans were officially already excluded under a previous ruling by UEFA.

AEK fan Kyriakos Mantzakidis, who runs a sports blog, said police should have prevented scores of Croatian fans from traveling to Athens.

“This was a murderous attack against ordinary people. Many of the people gathered in this area were not football fans,” Mantzakidis said. “It is a failure of the government to plan properly ... it was a good decision to postpone the game. The atmosphere was too tense".

'Bad Blue Boys'

Seven Greek police officers were suspended pending an internal investigation, government officials said, while a senior public prosecutor launched an official inquiry into the deadly clashes.

UEFA says what was going to be the second leg in Zagreb next Wednesday will now be the first leg. The second leg will be held in Athens on Friday 18th or Saturday 19th.

“UEFA deplores in the strongest possible terms the appalling incidents that took place in Athens last night and resulted in the loss of a life,” it said in a statement.

"While expressing our deepest sympathy to the family of the victim, to AEK Athens FC and its fans, we would like to reiterate that violence has no place in our sport and we expect that those responsible for this terrible act be arrested and consigned to justice in the shortest delay.

“Following yesterday’s violence and in consultation with the local authorities, UEFA has decided that the conditions for the match between AEK Athens FC and GNK Dinamo to go ahead tonight are not met.”

UEFA and Greek authorities had anticipated problems in the Greek capital city with back-to-back nights of Champions League qualifying games involving visiting fans with a reputation for disorder.

As a result, UEFA had requested that no tickets should be sold to visiting fans for both the AEK-Dinamo game on Tuesday and the Panathinaikos-Marseille match on Wednesday.

Dinamo has a far right fan group, which calls itself the Bad Blue Boys.