Sharp announcement by Kerki Samou against ESAP and EOPE for the wild card: “Good night Greek volleyball”

This theater of the absurd that we have experienced lately, we can say with certainty that it goes beyond the limits of sports. Now the anger of ESAP President Tarnatoros Pantelis towards us, caused him to fall into many mistakes with the end result of shrinking the highest category of Greek volleyball, in single digits, once again.

We have forgotten when was the last time that the first national division of the sport we serve was made with 12 teams, ie full. Now volleyball has become the only sport in Greece, which its president continues to stubbornly want and pursue, a single-digit number of teams and a closed club. By deliberately not following the general notices of the sports, doing what should and is reasonable, i.e. replacing the team that was promoted from the pre league and was unable to participate, with the one immediately next in the classification of the league table, in the end, he not only managed to take revenge on Samos, but also to prove to everyone that his narrative, that is, that there are no teams and athletes capable of staffing the volleyball league, and that this is the reason he insists on single-digit team numbers, will be thoroughly demolished !

We all now understood that the real reason you chose the secondary wild card process and not the main one, i.e. the competitive one, was that with the logic of divide and conquer you will succeed in achieving your real goals, which was firstly the team not it’s called Samos and secondly to create a court of law so that in similar cases you decide who will take the position and it doesn’t matter what happened on the pitches and who won the competitive right to participate, but who will match your wishes!

Despite our warnings that you cannot resort to the wild card because the regulatory framework did not exist before, you risk being accused of bias and photographic criteria. You finally resorted to this solution and exposed yourself irreparably! In fact, you called us out with your reply to our memorandum at the time, telling us that we do not have the right to send a memorandum to ESAP, that this is unprecedented in the annals and that you do not accept suggestions from a union that is not a member of your cooperative.

But time vindicated us and in fact very soon! And that’s because you did the world originality, first to ask for the entries and then to try to get the criteria and scoring in a competition, which from a ‘free participation card’, you turned it into a ‘paid participation card’. With sums of 50,000 euros one-off for participation fee (against 2,585 euros in 11 installments that applies to your remaining 9 members) and a guarantee of 150,000 euros (against 0 euros that applies to your remaining 9 members).

It is not enough for Caesar’s wife to appear honest, she must be. Since you proclaim that the goal is the financial credibility of the league and you are cut for it, then why didn’t you ask each member of the cooperative to present the same guarantee and the same participation fee within a week? Do you think that everyone who is already in your category would make it?

Who has given you the right of reason, that whoever is not in the fold is eaten by the wolf? You have caused the biggest category of Greek volleyball to be discredited from everywhere, the sponsors to disappear, there to be no interest in promoting the product on TV and the courts to be empty. Finally you stubbornly refuse to let go of the helm of the ship that you have thrown on the rocks. FINALLY quit!

Mr. Tarnatore, now the biggest lie that you have been selling for so many years, that you cannot make a bigger league because there are no capable teams to support it and that you need 5 foreigners to make it, has fallen. And that’s because 5 competitive and financially strong teams were offered to participate in it, creating a strong league of 14 teams!! In other words, you had 5 entries from 5 teams, which translates into 1,000,000 euros (based on the financial criteria you requested) ready to ‘fall’ in Greek volleyball and the volleyball league. Also at least 100 new jobs. And you, instead of welcoming them into the category, with the way I want it and with a notice cut and sewn to your measurements, you say I will go to 9 groups, with the ultimate goal of the state grant being shared again among a few!

Mr. Tarnatore, let us also remind you that you could not give the state grant to any president as you say, because you simply do not give it from your own pocket!

Finally with all this, it turned out that you put this extortionate condition of 5 foreigners to make a championship of 12 teams, it is purely a pretext to have the RIGHT reaction of PASAP and to remain in the single digits, falsely placing all the responsibility on its PROTAGONISTS sport.

Co-responsible for this entire theater of the absurd is the president of the federation, Mr. Karabetsos. Samos, as well as the majority of the country’s associations, supported him in the last elections, due to his announcements that he will bring volleyball where it deserves, and in fact we have been accused many times of being his mouthpiece club.

We are one of those who believed in his announcements, in the drumbeats for the creation of the pre league, the vestibule of A1 and in all the big words, but unfortunately when he was called to support them, he emptied the whole building and the pre league championship.

As a referee we met you, you were always fair, unbiased, unaffected even by human errors and that is why you are recognized by the whole volleyball world, not only in the narrow borders of Greece but worldwide. Now what changed? Because what any reasonable person, in any legal country, would consider self-evident, that is to promote the immediately following team that won the right to be the first runner-up in the event of a problem, you consented to the selection of the wild card and consequently to the disqualification of your own league? We would like your answer as to what it is that finally led you away from the positions of what is right and just and made you complicit in this whole farce. You owe it first of all to yourself and then to all those who believed in you and honored you in the federal elections.

Finally stop the candy that ESAP is another shop… your own product is being played with and exploited. They don’t play another sport… No matter how many foreign coaches you bring, from whatever school they come from, they won’t be able to do anything in the men’s national team, since the single-digit championship for a number of years has been a brake on the country’s biggest division where its players compete . Stop being complicit and consenting to the shrinking of the sport we all love so much!

That you excluded with your consent a team that won the right to participate in the stadiums, due to its geographical position and insularity, you will carry it heavily on your conscience and will go down in history as the presidents of EOPE and ESAP of single-digit championships during the term your.

We want a president forward for the development and progress of the sport and not an accountant president! You have proven to us that you CAN. But do you still have the same will? And if not why..

We will still be by your side because we believe that together we can put Greek men’s volleyball and the national team back on the European map after years. We propose to you that Samos host the Nation league with all the accommodation and food expenses of the participants and to show off the national team on our island.

Our proposal is to push by all means, for the championship to be made from this year with 12, if not 14 teams (since so many were interested in ESAP’s call) and to finally stop the taunting of Mr. Tarnatorou who pretends to wish for the same thing in every new championship : >. We’re sick of hearing it!!

Mr. Deputy Minister of Sports, you are talking about a four-year period with equal opportunities for everyone and equality everywhere! We ask you to see what is really happening in this ill-fated Greek volleyball in the last few years and finally reach the knife to the bone!

Although voices outside the island urge us to take the team from the Greek league and apply for participation in our neighboring country, Kerkis as a club, as well as Samiots, historically do not play with such sensitive national issues. We were never TRAITORS!!

We will continue to measure our wounds, put our backs to immigration, the earthquake, the fires and all the troubles that found our island in recent years and we will guard Thermopylae proud of it!

The competitive and revolutionary spirit that characterizes us as uncritical islanders, commands us to fight for justice and the correction of the wrong writings of the country’s third most popular sport.

We invite all those who truly love it to join us in this unequal struggle.

ALL TOGETHER WE CAN JUST BELIEVE IT!

Dear ESAP gentlemen, we will continue to compete in the Greek stadiums and we will protect this expensive destination for you, our island and you continue to do the Kifisia-Nea Smyrni-Athens-Piraeus route which is cheap and share the state subsidy !

GREEK IS GOOD GOOD NIGHT!!!



P.S.1 Gentlemen of ESAP, in case our country is threatened by external factors and you have to go to our island to defend it, will you help or will the destination be expensive there too?