ARIS: The God of War
Last weekend I went to an ARIS game, one of Thessaloniki’s three main soccer teams. The stadium for ARIS is in my neighborhood (near Alexandrias residence) and I’ve seen smoke rising from the stadium the last few games, so I knew it would be an experience! ARIS is the God of war and the fans take their team very seriously!
http://www.arisfc.gr/index.php?SCREEN=main
The league permitted 900 Iraklis fans (the opposing team’s fans) to attend the game along with 12,000+ ARIS fans. The Iraklis fans had to march together, under police escort to the stadium. They were separated from the ARIS fans by at least 20 empty rows of seats as well as by police… Despite the security, the ARIS fans were well behaved and things seemed pretty safe.
The rest of the scene inside the stadium was crazed however. The Iraklis fans chanted and had coordinated hand gestures, but the 12,000 ARIS fans chanted back… The most ardent ARIS fans are known as the “Super 3 bulldogs” and they waved huge flags and launched yellow smoke bombs around the stadium (yellow is the color of the team). In the end, ARIS won during the last few minutes of the game and the fans celebrated wildly.