
This should be the only time we hear about
women’s volleyball!
We here in the good ol’ US of A don’t really care about women’s volleyball. Sure, the guys will come out in droves to see Gabrielle Reece or Misty May sport a swimsuit during a traveling beach volleyball competition but that’s about all the fanfare there is. Not like in Greece where they take their women’s volleyball very seriously.
A riot broke out near Athens on Thursday between fans of Panathinaikos Athens and Olympiakos Piraeus as the rivals decided to take the match to the streets. One man was killed in the melee and seven others were taken to the hospital with injuries. If that’s not bad enough, the Greek government has suspended all professional sporting teams from competition until April 13. That ban includes basketball, volleyball, soccer and several other sports.
Violence in sport is something that affects our entire society … and cannot be tolerated,” government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said Friday. He went on to say, “These crimes are not anonymous. Specific people are responsible.
And those specific people have rioting down to a science. Two cars and three stores were destroyed as several dozen fans arrived to the riot on motorcycles and hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the surrounding mob. After the commotion finally subdued, the po-pos raided 15 different clubs that were considered to be supporters of the two volleyball squads and the evidence they found isn’t going to be very helpful to the teams’ fans. Police recovered tons o’ weapons that included pick axes, iron bars and baseball bats.
Suddenly, the Cowboys/Redskins rivalry seems like just some old friends getting together for an afternoon of camaraderie and friendly competition.
Links:
[Local10.com]: Greece suspends pro team sports for two weeks
[Reuters]: 3-sport-Greece suspends team matches after fan death
3 replies on “My big fat Greek riot”
haha — Great photo and caption. Which would you rather have: criminal fans or criminal athletes? At least its safe to attend games in the US.
totally true — The chances of an athlete stabbing me are slim to none so who cares if they are criminals. However, fans for the most part here are sane so I will less likely be killed at an American sporting event. Of course, the Oakland Colliseum might as well not be American soil.
i can see it now — Yankee fans and Red Sox fans read article about Greek riots, truce on the horizon…..
haha. right. at least all Yankee and Red Sox fans do is pretty much verbally abuse each other