the total amount of the club's debts towards Greek public authorities, a fee of €10,886,811. On 27 May, PAOK hired Frank Arnesen as their new sports director. On 18 June, Igor Tudor was hired as the new manager of the club, signing a three-year contract. On 2 September, PAOK announced the signing of Dimitar Berbatov on a one-year deal. Playing a 3–5–2 formation, the team progressed through three qualifying rounds to reach the UEFA Europa League group stage and on 10 December, PAOK made a surprising 1–0 away win over Borussia Dortmund at Signal Iduna Park. Tudor was replaced in March 2016 by youth-team coach Vladimir Ivić and the team won the Super League playoffs (pos. 2–5) and qualified for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. PAOK won the 2016–17 Greek Cup beating AEK 2–1 in the final held at Panthessaliko Stadium with a controversial goal scored by Pedro Henrique in the 81st minute. Linesman Kalfoglou failed to indicate that the scorer was in an offside position. In the same phase of play, moments before Leovac made the cross to Henrique, Crespo was brought down in the area by Simoes, but PAOK were denied a penalty by referee Kominis. The final was marred by crowd violence before the kick-off. In the Super League playoffs (pos. 2–5) that followed, a game against Panathinaikos at Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium was abandoned (scoreline 1–0 at the time) when Ivić was struck on his head by a beer can that was thrown from the crowd. The Serbian coach was taken to a public hospital and the match was interrupted by referee Kominis in the 54th minute. Panathinaikos representatives claimed that Ivić exaggerated the impact of the injury and could continue. The game was awarded 0–3 to PAOK by court decision. AEK went on to win the playoffs and PAOK finished 4th. After the end of the season, Ivić did not renew his contract and the club appointed Aleksandar Stanojević whose tenure as PAOK manager did not last long. On 11 August 2017, he was replaced by Răzvan Lucescu. 2017–18 eventful season On 25 February 2018 (and while PAOK were leading the league table being 2pts ahead of AEK), PAOK–Olympiacos derby was suspended before kick-off when Olympiacos manager Óscar García Junyent was hit by an object thrown from the crowd (reportedly by an unfolding cash register paper roll). Óscar García received medical attention before