A 29-year-old man was stabbed to death in Athens on Monday night during a brawl between supporters of the Athens-based AEK and the Zagreb-based Dinamo football clubs, the Greek police reported.

The fight between fans broke out ahead of the UEFA Champions League third-qualifying-round match between hosts AEK Athens and Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. At least six people were injured, the police said.

“A serious incident took place outside the Nea Filadelfeia stadium,” the Greek police were quoted by the Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

The 29-year-old man, who sustained serious injuries in the brawl, was transported to a hospital in the Greek capital city, but he succumbed to his injuries.

The police have arrested 83 people after this violent clash between the fans of the two clubs.

The Greek news agency Ana has reported that about a hundred hooligans supporting the Dinamo club had arrived in Athens.

“Violence has marred a number of previous Greek football matches, and last year the government increased the maximum sentence for crimes of fan violence from six months to five years after another stabbing death,” the AFP reported.

Match postponed

The Zagreb-based GNK Dinamo reported on its website on Tuesday morning that the UEFA decided that the match would not be played as scheduled following the incident.

The Croatian champion has said that it will later inform the general public of the new schedule of the match.

Earlier on Tuesday, the GNK Dinamo football club condemned the incident in the strongest terms.

Despite the UEFA’s ban on the away fans, it is still unclear how up to 120 Bad Blue Boys (bbb) fans of Dinamo managed to reach Athens without being stopped by the police, who were informed of the ban.

Local media in Greece have reported that an internal investigation would be launched after the law enforcement authorities failed to stop bbb members on their way to the stadium.

Those fans are reported to have been accompanied by Panathinaikos supporters from a railway station in Athens in order to together attack AEK fans outside the Nea Philadelphia stadium.