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Soccer News of Saturday, 28 September 2002

Source: Phantis

Derek Boateng In Locker Room Brawl

While latest Panathinaikos announcements have been how unified the team is, Friday's (9/27) the training session meant otherwise. It all started when manager Fernando Santos started yelling at his players for doing an exercise wrong, then it followed with a Vlaovic v Fyssas yelling match, and finally ended up with a Mpasinas v Derek Boateng brawl in the team's locker room. Aggelos Mpasinas (L) and Derek Boateng file photo

The Panathinaikos midfielders started fighting in the locker room, with several punches being thrown, before the two were taken apart by the rest of the players. The nerves had started out during the team's training session, when team manager Fernando Santos started yelling at his players for not following his directions during a particular exercise. The Portuguese manager asked his players to listen to him, even during the training sessions and not do whatever they feel like. A few minutes later Vlaovic and Fyssas exchanged some words due to a wrong pass, but put their differences aside right away and went on with the practice game.

But the worst was yet to come, as Mpasinas and Boateng started to fight in the locker room. According to news sources, the Ghanean midfielder started the fight responding to Mpasinas' teasing comments. What's left is the response from the team's manager and management.