Marinakis to Sun: “There is an expansion plan for Karaiskakis”

A second interview with an English media was given by Vangelis Marinakis.

His strong man Olympiakouwho spoke to “Daily Mail”made statements to Sunthrough which he referred to Piraeus, Nottingham Forest, as well as the situation in Greek football.

At the same time, on the occasion of hosting the European Super Cup at “G. Karaiskakis”, pointed out that there is a plan to expand the headquarters of the “red and whites”.

“I want this team to establish themselves in the Premier League,” he initially said of Nottingham, adding: “Of course we’ve spent a lot of money on our training center and stadium, and I’ve bought planning permission for our stadium and some real estate in the area.».

Also, about her course Nottingham in his first season back in the Premier League, he stressed: “What you saw last year was that Nottingham Forest were competitive in many games against big opposition. With the younger ones, he did not have the expected image. We lost some games we should never have lost. I am optimistic, we are on the side of the coach and the players and we believe that we will improve this year».

For the hosting of the European Super Cup at “C. Karaiskakis”: “It was important for us to successfully organize this top event. We are used to racing with full stands and in more difficult situations. At the end of the day we received many congratulations from both UEFA and the Prime Minister. They enjoyed the match and we are happy. The event was a success and the stadium was full. We enjoyed it».

When asked to say by the reporter if he could to become a Champions League final in “G. Karaiskakis”, he made a revelation. “In order to organize a Champions League final, a stadium with greater hosting capacity is needed. Because hospitality is the most important thing in such situations. Karaiskaki has 41 suites and we have a plan to expand the stadium. The most important thing is that Karaiskakis, Olympiacos and UEFA were the organizers and there was no involvement of the Federation. We organized it together with UEFA and you saw the result».

When asked to comment on the situation at Greek football: “The problem now is that the football federation of Greece is not capable of responding to the existing challenges. The people involved have nothing to do with professional football and that’s a big problem. This causes violence and other problems in Greek football».

Furthermore, on the matter, he said:For us who have invested a lot in players, infrastructure, stadiums, coaches and talk about a lot to improve and promote the brand, it is a problem. Because even two years ago there was an agreement with the prime minister and the president of UEFA and they signed a memorandum with strict guidelines for Greek football which said that we must have professional refereeing.

And it was my suggestion as president of the Greek Super League to copy the Premier League model with professional refereeing and it was something that worked very well in England. And what we said is, copy exactly the same way.

For us it is necessary to do this and also to have a professional committee to decide the future of professional football. And instead of doing that, this current committee has a minority vote and in any case it has no meaning».

Then the Vangelis Marinakis added: “Olympiacos for example – with the transfer fees we pay to the federation when we sell players or when we buy players – we are the main revenue provider of the federation and so far we have not received any declaration. There is no transparency.

What we said was that in Greece the police should be able to examine the fans coming to the stadium, because so far this is not happening and the security companies are not allowed to do it».