Baltakos: “Poget was justified in choosing Fortuni”

For justification of Poget’s decision not to include him Kostas Fortunis in his calls to the national team he spoke Takis Baltakos in his statements to Metropolis. The president of EPO emphasized that with the last appearances of the national team the coach proved that he is doing a good job, while referring to the issue of the presence of foreign referees in the league matches he pointed out that it is quite difficult to repeat last year’s “phenomenon” with the presence of 2- 3 foreign referees in the games of each competition.

The following are Baltakos’ most important statements in Metropolis…

For the National Team:

“There is a team atmosphere in the National Team, it is not the players who win but the team. And the team is not only good on the field, but also in the locker room. It also matters if the coach holds the reins properly as Poget does as you can see. The Greek national team has good players and a good team. In the match against France, when Mavropanos was sent off, the team immediately adapted because they had prepared for such an eventuality. This shows that there is a plan, which is why the team with 10 players did well. This shows that the coach is doing a good job.”

For Poget’s choices such as the non-selection of Fortounis:



“When Rehagel made the success in 2004, he was accused of not taking Zikos and Stoltidis. He made some choices and was vindicated. And the point is that Poget was justified in these games with Ireland and France.”

For Laos:



“Laoth said after the end of the match that he was impressed by the Greek national team because the behavior of the players was correct towards the refereeing trio as well as the referee himself. It plays a role if you are serious about football.”

For the training center of the national team:



“On October 4 the relevant UEFA committee meets and approves the amounts, UEFA finances and UEFA and FIFA agree. For them to give the money and they have to see the plans to agree, we have submitted plans for a training center and by then we will be ready, I believe the plans will be approved. The training center must be close to an airport. It must be if the weather conditions are not strong, UEFA measures this as well. A preliminary work has been done but we have not decided. I promise that on October 4, UEFA will have a detailed proposal for the training center of the national team”.

For refereeing in Super League 1:



“The fact is that it cannot be repeated last year when we had 2-3 foreign referees in each matchday, there may be exchanges of referees with the other federations. The referee can be Greek and the VAR foreign or vice versa, Mr. Bennett knows that. The chief referee has a two-year contract, for the other 4 Greeks a proposal has been made and will be decided by the executive committee and will be closed in July”.

For the Cup final:



“All I can say is that no one will suffer for the Cup final. This is how the proclamation will be written that will clarify things and resolve things. After the perennial protests of PAOK, Panthessaliko was a solution for the Thessaloniki and Athens teams, Volos remains a solution but with different conditions”.

On Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal from the 2030 World Cup:



“I don’t know why Saudi Arabia withdrew, it’s a logical explanation because it’s an Arab country, why it entered the competition with Spain, Portugal, Morocco, I say this as my guess, I don’t have any information.”