Not one, not two, but altogether 10 seats will be presented by Olympiacos at the meeting of the “big ones”, with Piraeus in fact, represented by Vangelis Marinakis and Costas Karapapas, giving them to the public.
Olympiakos positions in detail:
1. First of all, we find it unacceptable that Mr. Bennett is calling us to this meeting today while the regular season of the Championship and the first matchday of the playoffs and playouts have been completed and while the scoreboard has already been altered! And the man who has a contract from which he is defiantly rich has not accepted us bearing 60% of the cost of his presence. This is not done anywhere, in any serious country and it is a shame!
2. We had all agreed that there would be professional refereeing so that our football would be legal in the first place, since professional refereeing has become the law of the land. Unfortunately, however, any action in this direction is torpedoed and the sports fans must understand that this is done by design. Those who want the special interest puppet referees want exactly what is happening now. In other words, the plan of the Professional Arbitration should not be implemented and foreigners of poor quality should come so that we reach the point where the KED is under some… Mandalo to appoint Greek referees and foreigners of poor quality who will blindly obey and be vulnerable. Referees who have already “trained” second and third national teams and are preparing them for the Super League as well.
3. Some time ago the Super League, with AEK in the minority and Volos absent, decided to establish the GRO (Greek Referee Organization) and to run (at the expense of the Super League) the Professional Referee, while the EPO would maintain a percentage in the specific scheme so that not to cut the umbilical cord of the Federation with arbitration. In fact, Mr. Clattenberg was voted to undertake the project, who has proven to have better access to elite referees and major federations than Mr. Bennett. And you are trying to torpedo this plan even though you know that this is the future of Greek arbitration. That is, professional arbitration and elite and incorruptible referees who cannot be approached or influenced.
4. Until last week we contacted both UEFA/FIFA and major European Associations and they assured us that at no time did Mr. Bennett try to bring in elite or top referees from these Associations. Nor did he ask for any help from UEFA. And this is a big mistake and violates every agreement for elite referees and the unanimous will of our teams who demanded it institutionally. In addition to incompetence, there is clearly a question of deceit. Neither Mr. Bennett nor Mr. Baltakos wants a solution. We are looking again today, as we have already done many times in the past, to be given a complete picture of which communications were made, with which federations and which referees. For example has he contacted the German FA, the Dutch, the French, the Spanish FA?
5. We also want him to tell us exactly the procedure for appointing foreign arbitrators. How exactly is it done? Which people participate in the appointment of foreign referees, what exactly do they do and which people manage as companions the foreign referees who come to Greece.
6. Are the referees’ companions “companions” like Mr. Sidiropoulos to the referee Dabanovic, or are they some of the mixed bag that enters the National Team’s joy charter and we pay them out of our pockets to travel around the world with their wives them and their friends and unrelated employees doing tourism with our teams money? So tell us clearly and with your hand on your heart what is the role of Mandalos, Karadjikas, and the rest of the KED.
7. In a league where ALL the teams have complaints, have made announcements, we got to discussing the problem a few days before the 2nd game of the playoffs and playouts. We imagine that now that the championship has been empty for so many days we will have at least two elite referees in the 2nd matchday of the play-offs! If Mr. Bennett cannot, resign and UEFA/FIFA take it upon themselves to appoint a Chief Referee and Referee Committee.
8. The whole sports fan world, the young people who are in effervescence, everyone is discussing that with what is happening this championship will be in danger of not ending! Is that what you want? Elections are coming soon with great social tensions, do you want the stadium to become a place to decompress the tension or will you let it be a boiling cauldron with all that entails? So clear words! The will of all the fans, the teams and the State is to go for a smooth and fair conduct of the playoffs and playouts. Regarding the play-offs clearly and without any excuses: Elite referees and top referees from the 6 major leagues in Europe and if you can’t do it Mr. Bennett, leave and ask UEFA/FIFA to find us a man who will be able to. It can’t be that the nascent Super League refereeing mechanism has already found Associations and from the biggest footballing countries who can field elite referees and you can’t. So resign. There is also the path of dignity. And Mr. Bennett and Mr. Baltakos and anyone who tries to keep football captive to gangs that have infected it from the local to the top!
9. The latest incredible incident with Mr. Bennett having invited (as he himself informed in his letter) the six play-off teams but Mr. Baltakos cutting two of the six PAE shows and indelibly records the interference in the events of KED from the Administration which is obviously not the only one! We quickly recall the incident of changing the definition of a referee in a Super League derby with the intervention of Baltakou (Sidiropoulos at PAO-AEK) and the public exhortations-intimidation of the EPO President in referee seminars where instead of a formal greeting he threatened them with dismissal. Mr. Bennett, do you really know the contents of the Holistic Study on arbitration? Do you know that the EPO and its President or its CEO are prohibited from interfering with arbitration and its institutional functions. If you do not know them, today we deliver to you the pages of the Holistic Study on Greek football that relate to Arbitration and also the Law of the Greek State on the institutionalization of “Professional Arbitration”.
10. Obviously, Mr. Baltakos does not understand the irreconcilables. After all, he himself is an irreconcilable in essence since he went from one day to the next from a paid lawyer of PAEK PAOK without ever informing about his fees there, to the position of the President of the EPO although as he reveals the… proposal to take over the EPO with the ridiculous things that followed, Mr. Melissanidis made it as if EPO is PAE AEK. Unfortunately, the days we live with this gentleman in the EPO Presidency are days of shame for Greek football! Every day we have an unpleasant surprise that disgusts the world and sinks football further. Yesterday it was the Bennett letter that exposed Mr. Baltakos, the day before yesterday the shudder of the Greek sports fans who saw our National Team wearing a shirt that should have been rejected at a glance. The political world has risen from the left to the right! In the days of the Presidency of the EPO by a theoretician of fascism and the extreme right, Greek sports fan public opinion is shaken by the extreme (new) jersey of the National Football Team of Greece in which the angled ends of the cross are deleted, reminding us all of the swastika, a symbol that to make the Greeks shudder, and yet those who manage the EPO today could not be serious about such a thing either.
Source: Sport Fm
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.
