Fans banned from attending matches in Greece for two months

Greece must play all its top league football matches without fans for the next two months following a severe injury to a police officer in violence during a volleyball match in Athens last week.

All Super League 1 matches will be played behind closed doors, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said.

The volleyball match was between local teams Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, and the multi-sport clubs also field football sides who are bitter rivals.

Marinakis said the measure might also apply to some European fixtures at home and could be extended beyond 12 February, if top league teams fail by that date to take action, such as installing cameras and systems of electronic identification for their fans at the stadiums.

The announcement followed the critical injuring of a 31-year-old police officer by a flare in violent clashes that broke out on Thursday, during a volleyball match hosted by Olympiacos in Piraeus.

In Greece, fights between football fans and clubs are frequent on and off the pitch before or after a game and the government has been trying to reform football.

More than 400 people had been briefly detained over Thursday's incident which Greek police said was a "murderous attack" of hooligans on riot police, including the officer who remains in hospital in critical condition.

"For years, criminals in the guise of fans have been committing serious crimes by critically injuring and killing (people)," Marinakis said.

"Neither athletes, nor fans should they suffer from the murderous behaviour of criminal gangs and the pathetic tolerance of a tiny minority of fans," he added.

Last August, AEK Athens fan Michalis Katsouris was stabbed to death in violent clashes before a Champions League match between AEK and Dinamo Zagreb.

Follo