Greek Soccer Shows Support for Serbs
As fans chanted, “Stop the war, stop bombing!” and burned U.S. and British flags, a Greek soccer team played in Belgrade in a show of solidarity against NATO air strikes.
The outcome of Wednesday’s game mattered little to anyone in Partizan Stadium--the contest ended early in the second half with the score 1-1--and players hugged before and afterward.
Greek league champion AEK Athens and the Yugoslav team, Partizan, embraced before the opening whistle.
Even the rowdy fans of 11-time “One wouldn’t believe that in peacetime these guys would fight until death,” said Goran Mihailovic, a stadium security guard. “Now, during the war, they embrace like brothers.”
Greece and Serbia share an Orthodox Christian religion and other ties. Athens has been Serbia’s only ally among NATO countries and is not taking an active part in the air attacks. “The Orthodox people fight together against the devil’s bombs,” read one banner among the crowd of 15,000 at half-filled Partizan Stadium.
NATO’s military campaign is attempting to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw Serb special police and military units from Kosovo.
A Greek lawmaker was cheered by the crowd when he said he had brought from his homeland an olive tree, the symbol of peace, to be planted just outside the stadium.
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Brazil, led by strikers Fabio Junior and Denilson, routed the United States, 7-0, in an under-23 game at Brasilia, Brazil. The U.S. team was missing several players who are with Major League Soccer teams.
