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The postponement of the match Panathinaikos-Olympiacos because of the flares, which supporters of the home team threw on the field, led to the resignation of Yiannis Alafouzos, president of Panathinaikos. He announced his resignation on Saturday evening and said that he would propose the withdrawing of Panathinaikos from the championship.

"On Sunday, I will convene an extraordinary meeting of Panathinaikos' board, and I am going to offer them my resignation. I will suggest to the board to decide whether the club should continue to participate in the championship," said Alafouzos.

The derby of the 11th round of the Greek football championship between the eternal enemies could not even start after supporters of the home team tossed flares on the field when the players of Olympiakos had just started to come out.

One of the flares hit Alfred Finnbogason without seriously wounding him. Then the Olympiakos group leader, Savvas Theodoridis, asked the team's players to return to their locker rooms and demanded that the referees suspend the game.

After about 45 minutes of discussion with the police, it was decided that the match be postponed for security reasons.

Panathinaikos is in danger of a 0:3 forfeit. The new sports law on combating violence provides for the stripping of points from both this year's and last year's championship.

Meanwhile, police detained supporters of the "green" for acts of violence before the match and during the discussion over whether or not it should start. Roughly 50 people were arrested, with 16 of them kept in custody. Three policemen were slightly injured.

Panathinaikos issued a statement condemning what happened at the venue. The statement says that the club unequivocally stands against violence. "An hour and a half before the match with Olympiakos, two or three reckless Panathinaikos supporters took isolated action and threw flares at the time when the opposing team was coming out on the field. Two hours after the incident, and although it was not followed by anything else, the referee, in violation of the rules, decided that the game should be suspended, knowing the consequences of this decision. It was certain that the decision would lead to inadmissible and totally reprehensible incidents, which were seen by the whole country and affected both Panathinaikos and Greek football as such. We would like to believe that the competent authorities will scrutinise the completely erroneous and irresponsible decision of the referee," said the Panathinaikos statement.