Time doesn’t pass, it stops…
The circumstances which determine our fortune is not always fair. If that wasn’t the case, then the six young supporters who lost their lives on the road at Tembi on that fateful night of 04.10.1999 would still be with us. PAOK never forgets its family members. They remain in our memory always, watching us from above, and guiding us forward.
Nobody in the PAOK family, in 20 years, has allowed the six names of those people be forgotten over time …
Charalabe, Dimitris, Christina, Anastasios, Giorgos, and Kyriakos. Your love for PAOK brought you here, left you here, continued even further and is an example of devotion and faith in the four letters of the club to those sitting next to you, remembering your journeys whenever they think back to that fateful night in October ’99.
Your favorite habit, the addiction to the cult of the Double-headed Eagle, led you to climb aboard a two-storey coach that took you to the OAKA for the match against Panathinaikos on October 3. And you went, you cheered and shouted, you celebrated Joe Nagbe’s goal as the match ended in a 1-1 draw. And then you climbed back aboard the bus for the return trip home.
By the time it was dawn the bus fell silent as tiredness set in. Just as it did every other time you all traveled hundres of kilometers in one day, just to be there next to support PAOK, to show the team your love, and to «educate» each and every new member that came into the PAOK family.
The change of driver went unnoticed, but it proved to be fatal. On an awkward overpass just two kilometers from the Tembi toll station, the driver lost control and the coach veered off the road at the Kordelio junction…
Thousands of «whys» have been asked, and thousands of pages of memories have been written by those who escaped the terrible accident.
For PAOK, the memory of the accident is an essential component of maintaining the character and values that have united so many thousands of people to chant the same slogans, applaud the same emblem, and make sacrifice after sacrifice …
Another slogan has been added since then, guys. You would have sung it too, if it wasn’t for you and the fate your suffered: «You live brothers, you drive us forward …». An indescribable shiver. … A feeling of immense pride that at that moment, everyone is truly becoming one …
How we have begged to the clock to turn back. But no matter how much we prayed, we couldn’t go back in time. But we have never given up. We made a vow that we would not allow the passing of time make us forget you. We don’t just remember you on this day. We remember you always, and are inspired by you.
On 04.10.199 time stopped … On that day everyone involved with PAOK FC was in mourning. And from that day on, PAOK would always feel a deep «absence». No matter what we do, and no matter what we dedicate to you, we will always pray that you could be with us …
