The announcement in detail:
“The board of directors of EFOEPA collectively complains that on Saturday 25/02 and while the first post-coronavirus live meeting of the board of directors of EFOEPA was in progress, a group of approximately 25-30 people led by the president of amateur Olympiakos Michalis Kountouri and his coach Olympiakou Giorgos Christoforakis entered the room unannounced.
The president of Olympiakos took the floor himself and strongly addressed, banging his hand on the table, the chairman of the board of directors Konstantinos Papageorgiou protesting the rejection of the request of the Piraeus team to postpone the last game of the league due to the participation of Olympiakos players in an international tournament .
While the chairman of the board was trying to explain the reasoning behind the decision to the president and coach of Olympiakos, there was a commotion in the room with people from the back rows shouting and accusing the members of the board in vulgar terms, that with their decision they serve the interests of other teams .
The president and the other members of the board urged the people to sit in the chairs that were in the room so that the 2 presidents could talk. However, such a thing was not accepted, as a result of which the harassment continued and the dialogue took place with difficulty.
Both the president and the coach of Olympiakos continued to express their arguments vigorously, while the chairman of the board of directors tried in vain to re-explain the rationale of the decision demanding that the president and the coach of Olympiakos calm down the friends of their team present. The efforts of the 2 Olympiacos men unfortunately did not help at all in this direction. The shouts and obscenities continued until the departure of the Olympiacos people from the hall, after 15-20 minutes.
The EFOEPA Board of Directors was suspended after this event.
After its extraordinary meeting, the full board of directors, shocked, condemns the event unequivocally and declares that such practices have no place in amateur sports and will not influence the decisions of the board, while reserving all its legal rights. We respect and honor all the big and historic clubs that participate in EFOEPA events, but we do not want the “soccerization” of table tennis, in the bad sense.
The law gives the right to appeal against any decision of the Board of Directors to the Supreme Council for the Resolution of Sports Disputes (ACEAD), as the Piraeus union eventually did. After that, it becomes pointless for the Board to take any decision on the specific matter.
Whatever the decision of the ASEAD, the federation must and will respect it completely.
The goal of EFOEPA is for this as well as the other championships and other events to be judged exclusively within the competition arenas”.
I am currently a news writer for News Bulletin247 where I mostly cover sports news. I have always been interested in writing and it is something I am very passionate about. In my spare time, I enjoy reading and spending time with my family and friends.
