PAOK-OM: Barbed wire, shabby seats…. Here’s Gate 4, Tumba’s Most Electric Grandstand

Toumba’s boiling stadium – which OM will explore this Thursday evening against PAOK Salonica in the Conference League (9 p.m.) – lets itself be carried by “Gate 4,” Ultra’s name and the most electric stand in the enclosure.

This is where the hot atmosphere of Tumba Stadium begins. From this platform named “Gate 4” (Darwaza 4), the name was also linked to the group of militants being held there. They are the ones who will set the tone for the upcoming hubbub with PAOK and OM players this Thursday evening during the second leg of the Conference League quarter-finals (9 p.m.).

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Like the rest of the stadium, it is bordered by a severely damaged athletics track whose white lines have long been missing. Several missing seats in the bleachers testify to a certain state of dilapidation of the enclosure. The fence is rusted and the paint is cracking on the walls too.

The members of Gate 4 are well-known as some of the hottest and sometimes violent PAOK extremists. In a press release, Greek supporters, however, called for their support of the PAOK in a “heated” manner, not by throwing projectiles (a frequent occurrence in the league but severely rebuked by UEFA), “Gate 4″. like”.

barbed wire with opponent’s parking lot

The stadium would be filled with 28,000 people, without any Marseille supporters, denied travel. If they had traveled, they would have been in a separate parking lot from the main stand with barbed wire. Health restrictions linked to COVID prevented clubs from filling their enclosures, but they were lifted by the government last weekend.