Attack on fan
Master trainer suspended for four months
Updated 12/30/2024 – 5:02 p.mReading time: 2 min.
Coach Răzvan Lucescu has been banned for months because he is said to have attacked a fan after a heated cup game in Greece. But that’s not all.
The Greek Football Association imposes a hefty penalty on Paok Saloniki’s master coach, Răzvan Lucescu. The 55-year-old Romanian is not allowed to look after his team at games for four months, neither in the dressing room nor on the bench. He also received a fine of 15,000 euros. His club has to pay 30,000 euros.
The reason for the drastic sanction dates back a few weeks. After the extremely heated cup game at AEK Athens (0-1), Lucescu is said to have attacked and hit a fan of the opposing team.
Lucescu’s assistants Pantelis Konstantinidis, Georgios Tsonakas, Georgios Theodoridis and Athanasios Kapoulas also each have to pay a fine of 15,000 euros. Together with Lucescu, they stormed out of the team bus in the stadium parking lot and then allegedly attacked several AEK supporters. According to reports, the Paok officials provoked them with an insulting inscription on a T-shirt. Stewards tried to de-escalate the situation, but they were unsuccessful.
There had previously been a dispute with the president of AEK Athens, Marios Iliopoulos. He is said to have stormed into the Paok dressing room after the end of the game and shouted at Lucescu.
Lucescu was already a coach at Paok between 2017 and 2019. After a two-year stint at Al-Hilal, he returned to the traditional Greek club in 2021. He led the club to great success, winning the league title twice (2019 and 2024) and the Greek Cup twice (2018, 2019). After this scandal, however, his Paok time could end abruptly.