The U20 sides of Veria and PAOK were scheduled to meet on Sunday at noon, in the Rachia ground. When the players reached the venue, it was covered by thick fog. Everything –including logic- suggested that the match would be postponed.

The referee however begged to differ. He sent both teams for warm-up and informed them that the match would go on, although the prerequisite of visibility from box to box didn’t exist.

Mr. Melitzanidis ignored the arguments of both teams and signaled the start of play, risking the physical integrity of young players. The teams did their duty and put on an effort to play, while their coaches were trying to reason with the referee. Finally, after discovering in the first five minutes that he couldn’t even see his assistants on the pitch, he sent both teams to the dressrooms.

Twenty minutes later, the refereeing trio came out on the pitch and ascertained that there was no way football could be played there. Therefore the match has been abandoned and the organizing authority will decide on a new date for the remaining 85 minutes.

PAOK U20 head coach Vladan Ivić was very annoyed and told paokfc.gr:

“We came here to play football, but that was impossible. We spoke to the referees and told them the match could not go through. But the referee lacked sound judgment and put the players at injury risk. This is unacceptable”.

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