PAOK FC has been and continues to make every effort to ensure the smooth running of today’s derby match.

However, it seems that some people made an attempt to torpedo this effort just a few hours before the kick-off with an unprecedented police check at the Toumba Stadium in the early hours of this morning, which resembled more of a terrorist attack.

It was a standard check (!!!), according to the Head Police Inspector of Northern Greece, Mr. Skouba, who gave the order, and from whom we have already requested to inform us of the name of the person from his Athenian counterparts who passed down this order.

There is no doubt that they continue to treat us as second-class citizens, and that their aim is to try and decide the results of football matches off the pitch.

Even though up to now we have been constantly urging our supporters to keep their temper in check and not respond to any provocation, we are also still obliged to eliminate the other «contingency» plans.

And such a plan is unfolding in front of not just our eyes, but the general public’s eyes too, something which should urge us all to activate further our self-protection instincts.

It is becoming clear that they want to try and cause the match not to kick-off, or to be stopped during the game, even with the help of Mr. Skouba, to try and win another victory on paper and trying to get others punished. As such, the more they try and more we must make an extra effort to stop them from doing so.

Victory on the pitch and winning another three points have now taken on extra value, as the effect of a defeat on our opponents will be multiplied.

We all need to focus on this goal and keep our composure in check by not doing the slightest thing to damage our club.

P.S. We are wondering if Greece’s Northern Regional Minister of Citizen Protection, Mr. Chrysochoidis knows what is going on within his ministry, or what is happening based on the initiatives of his deputies and his subordinates, who by their orders are taking us back to previous times that everybody wants to erase from memory? Is our country still a presidential parliamentary democracy or has it become a junta of Vangelis Marinakis?