“The EPO has always been an open vine – The time has come for government intervention for corruption and arbitration”!

All the ridiculous things happening in EPO, while Greek football is shocked once again from a scandal, that of the illegal betting ring, commented on News Bulletin 247 The lawyer Nikos Lagarias. Talking to him Kyriakos Thomaidis on his show Stavros Chondrothimiou mentioned in the news, which saw the “light” of publicity earlier, that 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, we remind you, who he also has the status of a 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 deems it necessary to obtain all the evidence in order to initiate the disciplinary procedurehaving already retrieved them 109 Sportradar files which were archived. The President’s Committee of Appeals is the only one competent to sanction football players and teams.

As the “Trial” underlines, 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.

Speaking on the country’s top sports channel, Mr. Lagarias emphasized exactly this: That the criminal procedure is one thing and the disciplinary procedure is another! He said, among other things: “EPO has always been an open vine! Those who are said and those who are said, I invite them to refer to the Code of Ethics and the CAS! These bodies within the EPO are not courts. This is not a criminal court. Leave the criminal proceedings and proceed normally with the football disciplinary process. Disciplinary proceedings are one thing and criminal proceedings are another. Someone can be acquitted in the criminal case and convicted in the disciplinary case.

I hear about salaries of 8 thousand euros and 18 thousand euros. Have they understood exactly why they are being paid these salaries? What exactly does the EPO do? No more corruption! I think that it is time for government intervention, and in the matter of professional arbitration. The arbitration suffers every year all of Greece. The EPO does not apply the Holistic Study to the issue of illegal betting. On page 84 and 85 of the Holistic Study it is expressly stated that the EPO should create a panel of sports experts. They have it audacity to talk about rigged games while not applying the Holistic Study?”

Listen to the full discussion: