Illegal betting: They undermine the disciplinary investigation – The championship will start with shadows!

The case of the illegal betting ring it shocks the Greek football, but the obstacles to its clarification are getting bigger and bigger.

After cover-up attempt by the EPO, which fell into disrepute, came the disagreement between the prosecutor and the judge. As the website “Dikografies” reveals, the sports prosecutor of Athens, Kostas Spyropoulos, refused to hand over the preliminary evidence which he conducts to the president of the Ethics Committee of the Federation Charalambos Kotoulopoulos!

Mr. Spyropoulos, who also has the status of football prosecutor, cited the fact that the relevant file is in the hands of the Financial Police and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. The two services are currently identifying the elements that are the legally intercepted conversationsthe findings of the seized mobile and digital media and what the searches of the homes, bank accounts and safe deposit boxes of those involved revealed.

Mr. Kotoulopoulos considers it necessary to receive all the information in order to initiate the disciplinary process, having already retrieved the 109 Sportradar files that were archived. The President’s Committee of Appeals is the only one competent to sanction football players and teams.

As emphasized by “Trial”the reasonable question that arises is why doesn’t the prosecutor even deliver the copies of the case file to the disciplinary judge so that the professional football leagues can start without shadows.

If the prosecution persists in its refusal, the research process is drugged which is expressly provided by the EPO and FIFA Disciplinary Codes. The Ethics Committee is unable to establish charges for the rigged matches without having the criminal preliminary evidence in its hands.

The investigations of the authorities were carried out in five citiesAthens, Thessaloniki, Volos, Patras and Heraklion. Officials from 15 teams are currently involved (5 from SL1 and 10 from SL2). When the impasse created in our country by the prosecutor’s refusal to hand over the case file to the judge is lifted, new assistance from Interpol and Eurojust will be requested from the Supreme Court. The International Police and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office have already connected the Greek version of the betting fraud ring with six other countries (Sweden, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania).