Kountouris: “Only Amateur Olympiacos pays taxes – Unfair competition”

For tax evasion that takes place under the tolerance of the authorities and the creation of a climate of unfair competition, Mr Michalis Kountouris in a press conference he gave. The president of the Amateur Olympiakou he argued that only the people of Piraeus pay taxes, while he emphasized the importance of his offer Vangelis Marinakis stressing that he has been forced to pay ten times the amount agreed upon.

In detail what the president of Amateur Olympiakos said:

“What we have presented now is our achievement, of all those who worked, of all those who invested money. It wasn’t easy at all, it was the difficult road, the road where you don’t sleep at night, when you don’t go on vacation in the summer, to get to achieve this. Our helpers in this were PAE, KAE and Vangelis Marinakis! I say him separately, because this is the reality, because PAE, KAE did their duty with the percentages, with the opening of the Members and Fans section in their seasons and whatever was left over, Vangelis Marinakis put in, who at the beginning put agreed amounts, but he has arrived and puts tenfold! Now how he arrived and puts ten times more is something we will discuss. Big thumbs up to our Members, to our fans, who since we took over, we’ve roughly tripled in size. Expenses have increased. We are trying to cope, the difficulties are great. And this exodus cannot fall on one man’s back».

“As Mr. Marinakis said, we have changed history, we worked, we paid, we brought results, but some people must also come close to the team, in order to continue. In handball there are Mr. Xinis and Mr. Pournaras, they are some of our sponsors for years together, but there are no other people around here. The position of president is open, T.A.A. president, Amateur president, as long as they help the club. To rest a little, does not mean that we will leave. Somebody has to step forward, help a little, if we want to continue what we’re doing. We chose the difficult path to reach this level. In 2014-15, some people were telling us to reduce teams, we had four and we made two more, handball and women’s basketball. The expenses were a lot, but I don’t regret it, because these divisions won 20 titles, 10 championships, 10 Cups and participated in this title run. We have over 300 athletes, we have thousands of kids, we are in sports from above and we try to have good teams, so that kids can see something and admire and continue sports. The Membership and Fan Cards were mocked by some, but they also followed suit. They saw some positive financial returns and continued on this course those who were all mocking it. They followed us there, they didn’t follow us in other procedures, like the tax office».

“From 2015 onwards, a circular came out saying that all unions, all collective agreements, must pay 20% to the tax office. That is, an athlete who makes 100,000, you must put 125,000. This was mandatory, not optional. No tax is optional. The tax office is a tax office. In 2020, a new circular came out and 20% became 22%. We followed the legal path and pay our tax every year. So, we went to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Sports, several times and said: Gentlemen, what have you done for amateur sports? All you did was put tax, you haven’t done anything, just tax. That’s what you did, gentlemen. All who passed. They didn’t do anything. I’m not talking about the previous ones, they didn’t want to see sports. The current ones I try to understand what they want, what they want to reach, I think that there are people who do not know how to do what they have been assigned. I could say heavy words, but we try to keep a level head so we don’t look like we came here to curse them, but that suits some people. Well, they didn’t do anything, they just levied taxes».

“We went and told them: Gentlemen, we have information that only we, Olympiacos, pay taxes. You do something, you do 10% and no one else pays, only we pay. We said them, we listened to them. To the health of the clown called Olympiacos! We have reached 2023-24. Olympiacos, in the last three tax years, has only for athletes 1,700,000, only for payroll tax. Not for income tax, not for other indirect taxes, not for other extraordinary taxes, not for ENFIA, not for anything. 1,700,000 for that alone! In the rest of the unions, we have zero! We’re talking about zero, that’s our information. We pay the state more than 2,000,000 per year, together with the settlements and the rest. Amateur union pays over 2,000,000. And the others zero! If it’s wrong and it’s not zero, let us know. We are waiting to see what will happen, to see what they will answer. The responsible ones».

“We got to the corona virus where we were disbanding our teams, because we had tax to pay and settle the covid tax, because then there was no income, while now we pay 2,000,000. What is this called? Unfair competition! There is nothing worse than a government allowing unfair competition in any industry. Do I need to bring examples? If one shop pays taxes and another doesn’t, it will close. If this had happened in football, where there are Mr. Marinakis, Mr. Alafouzos, Mr. Melissanidis, Mr. Savvidis and the three did not pay, but only one and they took the championship from him, the government would probably have fallen . Much can be said now».

“We are waiting for answers! If they have anything else to tell us, we are happy to apologize. We think that we have been robbed of titles. When there is unfair competition, they also steal your titles. Last seven years, we have lost 11 championships, we have won many more, but how? With unfair competition. So let them refute us, let them tell us that we are not right. This is the past. What do we do from now on? We said it, we are waiting for answers. There is Mr. Hatzidakis, Mr. Theocharis, Mr. Vroutsis, they know it. They heard them, they are responsible from now on for whatever happens. The prime minister came out and said: We will crack down on tax evasion. Hatzidakis the same, that we will have a fair share in taxes. I don’t know what to say, we are waiting. To give you an example, in T.A.A., in volleyball, they gave something to amateur sports with betting taxation. However, they gave the money with a distribution that I think is not fair, but dangerous. Dangerous, to the point of saying: Don’t give it to us again! They tell us that we will get some money and at the end of the year, Olympiacos has collected 400,000 euros less. They had the European 7,200 unit for us, they took it to us for 4,200. Why, without informing us? You’re right, they told us. To everything we tell them, this is what they answer: You are right! Suddenly they put other teams on the register, they wanted to give some crumbs to the second category, they cut them from A1. The point is to have a serious league. They cut money from the league, they cut money from Europe. Here we were reduced from the Cup we got in Europe, because there are bonuses. Two teams won the European Championship last year, Olympiacos and Apollon in polo. Apollo got them, Olympiacos didn’t, it was a mistake. We were right there too! 400,000 reduction. That is, what budget should we make for next year? What income do we budget with? With what they cut us now? All up in the air. We can’t not know when we’ll get them. Give a constant to be able to calculate the union and the other end of time. Who can calculate without knowing their income? We are not a team that runs to get a championship, a Cup and leave, to tie up the club. We have been around for many years, the first thing we want is to have the club healthy, not to have it in debt. And really, we don’t owe him anything, except for the tax settlement».

“And we conclude with the bet money, which goes from positive to negative. They must work properly, those who know should do it and not everyone have their own agenda and say: I will distribute, I will give there, I will give to the other. They make politics around the money amateur sports should get. So, in the T.A.A., there were teams that got 300,000 euros, the first teams, the competitive ones, which have declared a competitive exit, that is, for the athletes, 50,000 and 100,000, while we got 1,000,000! They have given 50,000 and 100,000 and got 300,000! So, those who don’t pay tax got 300,000 of the taxpayers’ money! Situations not rule of law, situations… you know. That’s it for the tax office».