SUNDAY’S Greek Super League clash between PAOK Thessaloniki and AEK Athens has ended 1-0 after the home side were awarded a last gasp goal two hours after fulltime, despite their president marching onto the pitch with a gun in his pocket.

The match was suspended in the 90th minute after a disputed goal by PAOK defender Fernando Varela was initially ruled offside by the referee, prompting an angry protest from the hosts that led AEK to walk off the pitch.

However, two hours later, the referee awarded the goal - earning PAOK a crucial 1-0 win over the league leaders.

An angry AEK said on their official website: “The match was interrupted when referee Kominis correctly did not score Varela’s goal, as assistant [Kostas] Pontikis pointed out.

“There followed the invasion of Ivan Savvidi’s playground with his personal guard... and the withdrawal of the referees in the changing rooms.

“After about two hours and after the referee continually changed the decision to award or not the goal, he concluded that the goal counts and decided to stop the match.”

AEK complained that PAOK owner Ivan Savvidis came onto the pitch with a gun in his hip holster and threatened referee Giorgos Kominos, who was reportedly told “you are finished” by PAOK technical director Lubos Michel.

Referee Kominos later changed his decision and awarded the goal to PAOK -- if the 1-0 scoreline stands they would take over first place in the Greek table from AEK.

AEK’s Spanish coach Manolo Jimenez told Cadena SER: “We didn’t know if he had a gun, then we saw it.

“It could be seen that he was moving his hand towards his waist because he had a gun.”

Jimenez added: “He threatened the referee right in front of me. According to my interpreter, he told him: ‘You’re finished as a referee’.”

PAOK's owner Ivan Savvidis has to be held back from attacking the ref after his team's last minute goal was disallowedpic.twitter.com/ZZLhRFvv8L — gza gee (@AFC_Gilles_) March 11, 2018

The referee could not convince AEK to return to the pitch to complete the final few minutes of match after they expressed concern for their safety.

The visitors also complained that Savvidis attacked AEK director Vasilis Dimitriadis.

Savvidis had asked his team to leave the pitch in protest after Kominos’ call but PAOK’s Portuguese captain Vieirinha refused and the team did not go to the locker rooms, unlike AEK.

Kominos will issue a match report to the Greek football federation before a decision on whether the teams or individuals will be punished.

PAOK’s previous home game - against another title rival, Olympiakos - never started after Olympiakos coach Oscar Garcia was hit in the face by a cash register paper roll.

The latest incident has thrown the outcome of the season into further disarray.

“Images of team owners invading the pitch armed are setting back soccer for years,” Deputy Culture Minister for Sports Giorgos Vasileiadis said in a statement after the game.

After claiming that the current season was the “cleanest and most exciting” because of the government’s attempt to clean up the game, Vasileiadis said “we will not allow anyone to divert us from our task, even if we have to, in consultation with UEFA, to take difficult decisions.”

That has been widely interpreted as a threat to suspend the entire league. After the non-starter against Olympiakos, PAOK was fined and deducted three points, the game was declared a 3-0 victory for Olympiakos and PAOK was due to have played its next two home games in front of empty stands. But an appeals panel decided early Sunday morning to void the points deduction and to allow PAOK to play inside a full stadium, although the result remained in Olympiakos’ favor.

PAOK says it will appeal again, demanding that the game with Olympiakos takes place.

Olympiakos itself is appealing a decision that had deducted three points from the team for fan behavior in a Feb. 4 home game against AEK, which it lost 2-1. The appeal hearing has been delayed at least twice, and the current Greek league standings do not reflect any of the current sanctions.

If a PAOK official is judged to have threatened the referee as well as the AEK official, the team could potentially face relegation.

In soccer games which finished Sunday, Olympiakos won 4-0 at last-place Platanias, Xanthi beat Panetolikos 1-0 and Levadiakos drew 1-1 at Lamia.