Olympiacos issued a statement condemning the desecration of the monument at Gate 7.
"The family of Olympiacos, the family of the victims of Gate 7, assures everyone that no vandalism can destroy our monuments, which we keep alive along with our memories and respect for our 21 angels," the statement said.
On 8 February 1981, Olympiacos hosted AEK Athens for a league match, which ended 6–0, in an unprecedented triumph for the host team of Piraeus. During the last minutes of the game, thousands of Olympiacos fans at the Gate 7 rushed to the exit, to get to the stadium's main entrance and celebrate with the players, but the doors were almost closed and the turnstiles still in place, making the exit almost impossible. As people continued to come down from the stands, unable to see what happened, the stairs of Gate 7 became a death trap; people were crushed, tens of fans were seriously injured and twenty-one young people died, most of them by suffocation.
On the eastern side of the Karaiskakis Stadium, there is a monument bearing the names of all 21 supporters killed on that day.
"The family of Olympiacos have been receiving asymmetrical attacks of mud and hatred for years. An attack aimed at the whole of Olympiacos and its leader Evangelos Marinakis."
It concludes: "If some cannot limit their hatred, let them turn it on us, who stand before them, made of steel and sea, holding the Red and Whites high and let our dead rest in peace."
