Athens: Matches in Greece’s Super League will be suspended for one week, the government said on Wednesday, as it seeks to implement a crack down on football violence.

It had been announced earlier in the day that all professional matches would be suspended “indefinitely”.

Yet, after a second meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, deputy sports minister Stavros Kontonis confirmed that the suspension would be limited to this weekend’s top flight action.

Kontonis announced that the government and football authorities would reconvene next Wednesday and the Super League would only resume on condition that promises given for containing crowd violence were adhered to.

“Under the current circumstances it is impossible to have Super League games played this weekend,” said Kontonis.

“The decision of the government regarding the combatting of violence is definitive and irrevocable,” he added.

“We’ll meet again with the representatives of the authorities next Wednesday and see what they have implemented from what they have promised to do. If the situation remains the same, there will be another suspension.”

The suspension follows a pitch invasion at the end of the Athens derby last weekend and a Super League board meeting that ended in a brawl on Tuesday, with Greece’s recently-elected Syriza ruling party aiming to stamp out the problem of crowd violence.

It is the third time this season that professional football in Greece has been shut down.

Matches were halted for one week last September following the death of a fan after violent clashes at a third division match between Ethnikos Piraeus and Irodotos.

The authorities then suspended games last November after Christoforos Zografos, assistant director of the Central Refereeing Committee (KED), was taken to hospital following a violent assault.

Panathinaikos’s 2-1 derby win over Olympiakos Piraeus two days ago ended with a pitch invasion after flares were thrown onto the field at various times during the match, one of which hit the Olympiakos midfielder Pajtim Kasami on the arm.

Kontonis told national TV news channel Skai: “What went on during the [Athens] derby and what has been happening in other stadiums in the past has surpassed all limits... fans invading the pitch, throwing flares that are aimed to hurt people; all this is unthinkable and this situation cannot continue.

“The government will not simply monitor these phenomena in silence. What happened yesterday shows the reality.

“When we see this violence from the stadium go to a boardroom of a football institution, then you understand that the situation is completely out of control.”

A Super League board meeting ended abruptly on Tuesday, when a verbal spat between Olympiakos Piraeus president Evangelos Marinakis and his Panathinaikos counterpart Giannis Alafouzos sparked a violent scuffle with tensions high following the trouble at the Athens derby.

The incident meant the meeting between the presidents of all Greece’s top flight clubs came to a premature end, with Alafouzos telling reporters his deputy Vasilis Konstantinou suffered a cut lip from a blow by one of Marinakis’s bodyguards.

“We were assaulted,” he said. “Mr Marinakis threw a glass of water at me and then his bodyguard threw a punch at Mr Konstantinou. I cannot believe that a Super League board meeting had such violence.”