Armed PAOK president tells official 'You're finished as a referee'

The game between PAOK and AEK had been suspended for more than an hour before the referee finally ruled that it was over. The suspension had been called after a brawl took place on the pitch in reaction to the officials' decision to rule out the home side's last minute winner.

The official interestingly decided to give the three points to PAOK, despite the original decision to rule the goal out for offside being correct. When he gave the original decision, he couldn't have imagined the chaos that the call would lead to. The PAOK players rushed to the referee to contest the decision, and there was a pitch invasion, which the president of the home side took part in. 

The ref had to go to the changing rooms as quickly as possible after being threatened by the sporting director of the club, and seeing that the president, Ivan Savvidis, was apparently armed. The AEK manager, Manolo Jimenez, confirmed that Savvidis was carrying a weapon later, in an interview with 'COPE'.

"The president walked in front of me, we didn't know that he had a gun, but he moved his hand to his belt and drew our attention to it," the Spaniard revealed. "I'm stunned; I don't understand it. It's the type of thing you expect to see in a Chuck Norris or a Clint Eastwood movie."

"He threatened the referee right in front of me. According to my interpreter, he told him: 'You're finished as a referee'."

Despite the hostile atmosphere, the visitors were ready to play the remaining minutes of the game, but the AEK president would not allow the players to leave the dressing room.

"The president said that we were not going to go out onto the pitch with this atmosphere. There were five minutes of added time, and the referee said that we would go out and finish the game, but in the end it didn't happen," Jimenez concluded.

After the game, PAOK announced through their Twitter page that the referee had overruled his original decision and awarded them the 1-0 victory.