Answers regarding the venue of the Novibet Hellenic Cup final, as well as the main issue of arbitration, were given to the newspaper “Eleftheria of Larissa” by the president of the EPO, Panagiotis Baltakos.
The head of the country’s football federation, after being placed in discussions with the mayor of Volos, Achillea Beo and the hosting of the final in Panthessalikos, emphasized that his goal is to give priority to Greek referees from 2024.
In detail what he said:
For the venue of the Cup final: “The final will take place exactly as provided in the announcement. We had said that if one of the two teams is from Thessaloniki and the other from Athens, it should be somewhere in between and the city is Volos.
As we all know, the mayor of Volos does not accept to host fans of the two teams because there have been incidents in the past. And what he is asking is for the match to take place in Volos, but essentially behind closed doors. That is, with invitations only by name given by the EPO. It does not accept fans at all.
This means in principle that we have to look for another stadium such as OAKA, if of course it is available, which we do not know. But for the match to be played in OAKA, PAOK will have to agree because the announcement does not say Athens, says Volos.
So there are two options, either in OAKA if PAOK agrees or it will be in Volos, but with the conditions set by the mayor of Volos because the stadium is municipal. Therefore, the mayor has decisive authority”.
For the date of the Cup final: “No, we have to find the stadium first. The stadium takes precedence because we can say the date, but we cannot be given the stadium on that day. We have to find the stadium first. . . All this will be done on April 27, when the EPO executive committee meets. Then the stadium and the date will be decided. In order for a football match to take place in Greece, permission must be given by the Police. The Police is a government. We had thought that the final would take place on May 21, of course it cannot take place nor can it take place on May 20 because public gatherings are prohibited, if I remember correctly. In any case, he will not give permission even for May 20, Saturday”.
For “the gift of the skirt from the vice-president of Olympiakos”: “Actual insult always characterizes the person who commits it. I didn’t answer nor will I answer except institutionally”.
For the 2030 World Cup with proposed cities Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklion: “Recommended by whom?” We must emphasize that the claim is not made by the governments but by the Federation. The Federation has not been involved, when the Federation is involved then we will see which cities it will be”.
For Super League 2: “It should have fewer teams. This is clear, the Greek football reality cannot face a 2nd National football division championship of so many teams. In my opinion, the second national team should be 14 plus the four teams of the major teams. That is, the second teams AEK, Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and PAOK in alphabetical order. For me that’s where the number has to be because only then will it be sustainable. The way the league is now, with as many teams as it has, it is not sustainable. That’s where the problems we see last year and this year start”.
For the financial support of the EPS during his days: “I will tell you, there was money that UEFA kept and did not give for reasons that I do not want to expose and do not concern me. He then kept a very large amount and did not return it. The first thing I did was to go there to the UEFA offices, talk to their officials, tell them that I have now been elected and I want the money that has been withheld from us. They gave me this money and the result of this is that the EPO currently has a huge financial sufficiency compared to what happened in previous years… Sufficient funding of the EPS for me is fundamental to having football in Greece. I believe football is a people’s sport, it’s not just the big teams. Football has 2,500 active clubs now, a few years ago it had 4,300 clubs, which due to the memorandum and the corona virus have stopped functioning. My big goal is to reopen and as much as we can help. And in order to help them, we have to help the PES”.
For the National team and qualification for Euro 2024: “This is a huge issue for the National team to qualify. We have a very difficult draw with France, Holland, Ireland, but we hope that they will get such a position to qualify for the Euros. This is the second major goal. In conclusion, my vision is the financing of the PES and the qualification of the national team”.
For the presence of foreign referees: “In the year that is ending now, it is understood that they will play, next year it is planned that foreign referees will play and it will be done in a smaller percentage than now. My own goal is that from 2024 Greek referees will play and foreigners will rarely come and only in important and very big matches”.
For the replacement of the Polish referees in the AEK – Aris match: “I did not interfere in the work of the KED and I should not interfere at all because the EPO cannot interfere in the work of the KED. There is a whole philosophy on this which was reflected in the holistic study signed by the Prime Minister of the country. It clearly provides that the KED must be independent. This is also found in the EPO statute in article 46, which provides exactly the same. In other words, for people to understand the difference which is that the EPO can and should deal with the KED in administrative matters.
In other words, KED has needs of an administrative nature, to be paid their fees, to be able to have an office, to be able to do their work, their communication. All this is taken care of by the EPO, but in the definitions of arbitrators, the statute clearly states that it is the responsibility of the KED. So, in this matter of KED, I want to be in harmony with the statute. Whether the actors believe it or not is none of my business, it is their business.
That is, the definitions do not belong to the EPO, they belong only to the chief referee Mr. Bennett and he is independent to do what he thinks. Mr. Bennett judged that those he had appointed, the Poles, were not in a position to arbitrate.
He just informed and the relevant announcement came out. Neither personally nor the EPO dealt with this issue, nor could we deal with it”.
On the lack of new referees: “This is a very big issue because when they see the new kids and I mention to the new referees that the Greek First Division referees or international referees are not progressing, they get disappointed. Because don’t forget that every first-year hopeful, Evert once said, when he enters Hope School, what he thinks about is becoming an Army captain one day. And this is the logical and normal thing.
So when an umpire in any county is 20 years old and starts out and realizes he’s not going to get anywhere and just stay in the county, you realize his interest is ebbing and waning all the time. In order to have amateur football we must have referees and see that those who are first national and international play games. If they don’t play, they won’t continue, they will stop and we won’t have referees in Greece because they won’t have the development they want”.
Source: Sport Fm
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