Players chasing a snake, a police flash bank torns fan’s hand, sprinklers turn on to interrupt game – all the three incidents marked the opening round of the new season in the best Macedonian league.

The first incident that happened was at the stadium in Kratovo where the players had to chase a snake in order to play safely. As the referee was seconds away from blowing the second half kick-off on the game between newly promoted side Sileks and Horizont Turnovo, panic came from the home half of the field: during the break a snake nearly half a meter long had invaded the field. Bravest was home attacker Stojanche Velinov who tried to drive away the snake, but failed. Then the stewards arrived and managed to drive the snake away of the field, but believe it or not, they left it behind the bench of the visiting team. The game eventually continued. (click here to see a photo of the snake)

Video of the chasing:

The second and biggest incident occured at the Derby of Macedonia played in Bitola between the eternal rivals Pelister and Vardar. The beautiful atmosphere was ruined near the end of the game when the police order the visiting fans to leave the field 15 minutes before the end. For those who don’t know, Macedonia is the only country in the world where a supporter who has payed a ticket for a football game isn’t allowed to watch it until the end if it is a visiting supported. As elsewhere visiting fans are kept even half on hour after the final whistle, here in Macedonia they are forced by the police to leave early and miss the game ending. Well, Vardar supporters Komiti decided to put an end to this nonsense and ignored the request by the police. Most of the fans were driven outside the stadium, but around 200 were still resisting. The forces of the law started beating the fans and even threw a flash bank among the fans. In that moment, one brave fan took the bomb and as he wanted to threw it away from his people, it exploded in his hand. Eight fans were injured by the explosion including the brave one who lost his hand. Later in the hospital the doctors manged to safe his hand but had to amputate 2 of this fingers. His hand is still badly damaged and he will have to attend medical treatment in Germany.

Video of the explosion:

The last incident happened on the last game played on Monday between League and Cup holders Rabotnichki and Metalurg at the National Arena Philip II of Macedon in Skopje. The visitors were leading 3:0 when exactly in the 1st minute of the injury time one of the sprinklers suddenly started working and refreshed several players.