Fans go on a rampage during a water polo league game

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Olympiakos-Panionios match abandoned before halftime; player injured

A lone player among objects thrown into the pool after the league match between Olympiakos and Panionios was abandoned last night. Among the items not shown in the picture were a camera and its tripod.

Just a day after the government prided itself on having significantly reduced soccer violence, an unprecedented series of incidents at a water polo match yesterday demonstrated that hooliganism is alive and well and that the presence of visiting supporters is not required for matters to escalate out of control.

Less than halfway into the match, namely 1 minute, 31 seconds before halftime, and with the score tied 3-3, there was a foul on Olympiakos’s player Thomas Schertwitis. Then, Panionios’s captain, Costas Loudis, kicked Schertwitis underwater and the two exchanged blows. Soon, all players joined the fray.

Such incidents happen often in a sport where close marking is the norm. What happened next, though, was highly unusual. An Olympiakos fan jumped onto Panionios’s bench and pushed coach Alekos Vassos into the pool. Many more fans followed, hitting Panionios’s players on the bench and then throwing into the pool all kinds of objects: tables, chairs, blocks of wood, chips of marble, advertisement banners, shoes, slippers, socks, bottles, cups, trash cans, buckets, lifebelts, bags, a camera and its tripod. A Panionios player, Zacharias Anastassiadis was hit by a wooden block and had to be moved out of the arena on a stretcher. He was transferred to Piraeus’s Tzaneio hospital. Costas Dimou, an assistant coach of Vouliagmeni, another first-division club, who had been sent to scout the match and was filming it, was set upon by fans who managed to wrench the videocassette from Dimou’s camera, fearing, probably, that they had been filmed.
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http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_sport_566830_02/12/2004_50281

[htuttle]

1. During a really big brawl, does the audience jump in the pool?

That would be a sight...

[Semi_subversive]

2. Was Ron Artest there?

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3. The greek fans don't need an excuse to riot.

They do it for fun.

[Renew Deal]

4. kick for the morning crowd

:kick:

[StopTheMorans]

5. never heard of "water polo hooligans" before

i guess there's a first for everything :shrug:

[Magrittes Pipe]

6. I hope none of the pretty horsies were hurt.