30 Years of Friendship: The Reunion of OM and AEK Athens

Imagine a friend whom you haven’t seen for almost 25 years and whom you meet again overnight. Of course, OM and AEK Athens have not lost touch, through remote messages and surprise visits. But for the first time since 1989 – and the start of the relationship – the two clubs face each other. The Vélodrome will be packed with 64,000 people and 3,500 Greeks to celebrate the reunion.

Several OM European matches have given rise to incidents between supporters in recent seasons but on Thursday, the atmosphere should be serene and joyful for this clash between two clubs linked by an old rapprochement between Commando Ultra 84, one of the main groups of Marseille supporters, and their Greek friends from the Original 21.There should be some great things there, both on the way there and on the way back. It’s going to be festive“, promises Lionel, former member of the hard core of the CU84, today still present in the Virage Sud with the Old Guard, former Ultras. A common procession is planned and a prize pool has even been launched among the Marseille ultras for cover hosting costs for their Greek counterparts.

“The friendship with AEK is the strongest I have ever been a part of“, he assured AFP. The story dates back to 1989 and the arrival of the Athenians in Marseille for the round of 16 of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup. “It remained in history for two reasons, the famous dance with our backs to the stadium, which everyone renamed the ‘Greek’, and because we spent the entire match topless“, tells AFP Makis Solomos, present that day at the Vélodrome.

The rapprochement is strengthened four years later in Monaco. In the Champions League, the Principality club replaces OM, disqualified from any European competition, and hosts AEK in the round of 16 first leg. Despite the absence of their club, the Marseille supporters made the trip and found their Greek counterparts. “We exchanged our first scarves and our addresses. That was the real starting point“, summarizes Makis Solomos, who will be “obviously“among the Greeks expected in Marseille on Thursday.

“It was the pre-internet days, I was given an address and started corresponding with a member of the Original. We exchanged photos, stickers, fanzines. Then there were the emails, more meetings, cheaper planes… I sometimes went there three times a season“, says Lionel.

Since then, tifos and banners have regularly celebrated the fraternity between the two clubs. In 2011, before a C1 match against Olympiakos, the CU84 exhibited a huge tifo assuring, in Greek: “there is only one team in Athens: AEK“. In 2020, before a new Olympiakos-OM, AEK fans came to support the Marseille players in front of their Athenian hotel, the Covid having prevented the arrival of Provençal supporters. Yet beyond the common history between Athens and Marseille, founded by Greeks around 600 BC, “hard to say why it was AEK“, recognizes Lionel.

“They were openly anti-racist, with an almost anarchist side. Their platform was a big mess. We, at CU84, have always been open to everyone, it was two open forums“, he explains. “We have common values. We hate modern football and we are a little anti-system. There is a social, supportive character. Romantic relationships too“, smiles Makis Solomos.

“Politics is not the first criterion, but obviously it plays a role“, says Dimitris Dimitriou, another emblematic figure of the Original 21, showing a photo of Keny Arkana, a committed rapper who grew up in Marseille, taken during a visit to an Athenian premises of the Original. But “after a while, these are relationships that go beyond football“, believes Lionel. “A guy from AEK was at my wedding, he knows my wife and my children. I will go to Athens for a week for the return.”

“It’s like in life, friends are few but precious“, assures Dimitris Dimitriou, who had proof of this in August, when the Marseillais supported AEK after the death of Michalis Katsouris, a young supporter of the club killed during clashes with hooligans close to Dinamo Zagreb .”You count your real friends when things are bad. I sent a few messages and the CU84 was there“, adds Lionel. A few days after the tragedy, several banners in honor of Michalis were displayed at the Vélodrome. Thursday evening, there will be others, for him and for 30 years of friendship.