Stade Toumba has built a solid reputation.
The lair of PAOK Salonika has established itself, thanks to its boiling supporters and a few outbursts, as one of the hottest atmospheres in Europe.
And Thursday evening's confrontation between the Thessaloniki club and Olympique de Marseille, in the quarter-final second leg of the Europa League Conference, should be no exception to the rule.
Winners 2-1 in the first leg, the Marseillais are favorites for qualification, but they will have to perform well on the lawn of the second in the Greek championship, and remain sealed from the popular fervor released by the public.
A stadium accustomed to bloodshed
French teams have already moved to Stade Toumba.
Stade Rennais notably faced PAOK in the group stage of the 2005-2006 UEFA Cup.
But the most memorable match remains the opposition between PAOK and Paris Saint-Germain in October 1992, in the round of 32 of the UEFA Cup.
Winners 2-0 in the first leg, the Parisians lead 2-0 at half-time on the return trip to Thessaloniki.
But the game will never see a second period.
Mad with rage against their players and club officials, the fans go wild at the break.
They push the fences, bend them and land on the lawn.
Players in training are forced to run back to the locker room.
A few minutes later, the delegate comes to tell the Parisians that the match will never resume.
In 2018, it was the president of the club, the Greek-Russian businessman Ivan Savvidis, who was the talk of the town.
After seeing a goal disallowed for his team against AEK Athens, the 59-year-old man tumbles onto the lawn, pistol in his belt.
A case which causes a stoppage of the Greek championship for more than three weeks, and which is worth to the interested party three years of stadium ban.
More recently, in February 2022, a brawl between supporters of PAOK and rival club Aris Salonika ended in blood.
A 19-year-old Aris supporter was stabbed to death by a member of PAOK hooligans.
The Greek-Russian owner of the PAOK Salonika club Ivan Savvidis, on the lawn with his hand on his gun in 2018 after a goal disallowed for his team against AEK Athens.
REUTERS
No Marseille supporters this Thursday
Olympian supporters will not be able to experience this very special atmosphere.
The Greek authorities asked UEFA on Monday to ban the movement of Marseille fans following the violence that occurred in the first leg.
The ultras of the two camps had exchanged blows and throwing seats, a dozen people had been arrested.
The Greek ultras who had made the trip had left their parking lot in the Vélodrome in a sad state at the end of the match.
The seats of the PAOK supporters' stand were pulverized.
https://t.co/bpc4HotYhl
– RMC Sport (@RMCsport) April 8, 2022
Even before this decision, one of the main groups of Marseille supporters had already canceled its trip.
It must be said that they were largely dissuaded.
“In the return match, I hope that Marseille will be received as we have been received here, declared the coach of the Greek club Razvan Lucescu.
I am very disappointed with what I saw.
There is a lot of violence in the world today, there is no need to have it in football.
Better that your fans do not come to us”.
Widely criticized for his remarks, the Romanian coach said on Wednesday that he did not "regret" his words.
"Rather than criticizing my words, people in Marseille would do better to criticize what happened at home during two crazy days, the attitude of OM supporters and the organization", added, convinced, the 'coach.
Giorgios, a 57-year-old supporter who has been following his club in Europe for almost twenty years, had never seen this: "For the first time in my life, I was scared," admitted the Gate-4 member, the club's main group of ultras, named after their gateway to the Toumba stadium.
For him, as for many other PAOK fans, the club is much more than a passion: “Supporting PAOK is a way of life, the engine of our existence.
Our role is considerable in the course of our club and we are proud to be known throughout Europe”.
#PAOKFamily Μια ψυχή με χιλιάδες πρόσωπα - https://t.co/FuBxeM2OjH #PAOKOM #UECL #PAOKFans #Toumba pic.twitter.com/CXbD0yZzvG
— PAOK FC (@PAOK_FC) April 13, 2022
With a capacity of more than 40,000 people when it was created in 1979, the Toumba stadium, named after the district in which it is located, has been gradually renovated and secured, in particular to host matches during the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. Its maximum capacity is now 28,701 places.
Seats which will all be occupied this Thursday evening, at 9 p.m., for the kick-off: the Greek club has announced that the match will be played behind closed doors.
