The Romanian Tragedy and the “Miracle” of Unity: How Rival Fans Became Brothers for PAOK’s Fallen “Eaglets”
The whole country, as well as all of European football, froze with the tragedy in Romania, where seven young PAOK fans, who were traveling by road to France to see their team play in Lyon against the local team, lost their lives in a terrible road accident, when the van carrying them collided head-on with a truck just outside Timisoara.
The pain was unbelievable, the moments lived by relatives, friends, acquaintances, but also strangers, who shuddered at the mere thought of the horrific accident, were dramatic.
However, what impressed us the most, what softened the unspeakable pain, the lamentation, the despair, was the reaction of the fans of the teams that are considered the main, the most… hated rivals of PAOK. We are not talking about the reaction of the clubs, which issued the typical condolence announcements, but about the reaction of the fans, the fanatic fans, who may have fought in the past, may have been beaten, may have bled, but now rushed to express their agony and sorrow, their support to the families of those whom they considered deadly enemies until yesterday, to the club that even at its mention used to give them… goosebumps.
Fans of eternal rival Aris went to Toumba and left their scarves, Olympiacos fans held banners in Amsterdam and marched shouting “fly high, ‘Eaglets'”, PAO and AEK fans, shocked, organized makeshift tribute and support events for the unjustly lost. These children, who are sometimes called hooligans, sometimes anarchists and sometimes scum and anti-social, showed that before the mystery of death they respectfully kneel, they forget that they were sworn rivals with the victims, fought and stand by the fact that they could have been in their place, in the accident they could very well have had many chances of being among the dead, because they too have made long journeys to see their teams. They showed that they understand that they are the same as the victims, they have the same passion, the same love for their team.
That they feel the pain of the rest of the PAOK fans and feel the need to support them, to show them that they empathize with them. Perhaps it is the first time that fanatic fans feel the fans of the opposing team as equals, as the same, as beings who hurt and rejoice like them. And this is the most important, the most hopeful thing: That fans of rival teams understood, felt, embraced that they are the same, so much the same, so similar, that they had never realized it. And that they fit so well, that they could be best friends, mates, brothers.
The team separates them, but the team is on the field, the game lasts 90 minutes. Afterwards they remain the same, they rejoice for the same things, they are troubled by the same things, the same situations hurt them, they cry for the same dead. If what we saw now, with the great tragedy of Romania, works, then our society will be saved from a chronic canker, from a great timeless evil that clips its dreams and extinguishes its hopes. Because no evil is without some good, let us hope that from the fragments and ashes of the terrible accident hope will be born, the prospect of ending blind violence in stadiums. Unless some people invest in it and torpedo the predisposition that is created…
