Panathinaikos AKTOR: “These are the six phases, which UNFORTUNATELY show a clear intention”

For another match they filled the stadium, created a unique atmosphere and did not respond to the challenges they received.

They stood up to the circumstances, as did our team, but unfortunately we cannot say the same for the referees of the match, who committed glaring mistakes against us. And if in good faith we can accept that some are due to the low level of performance of the specific referees, or to human errors, it is not possible not to focus on obvious phases, which UNFORTUNATELY show a clear intention!

1. 1:53′ before the end of the first quarter, Kendrick Nunn’s basket was canceled for an offensive foul (?) even though the ball had left his hands before making contact with the Olympiakos athlete.

2. 8:22′ before the end of the half, they refused to check on Instant Replay whether Alex Peters’ basket was for two points or for three as they finally counted it, stating that they were confident of the correctness of their decision. Of course, the video is irrefutable witness to their wrong decision, which they would be forced to take back if they bothered to watch the replay.

3. 8:01′ before the end of the game the same referees changed their decision on Marius Grigonis’ goal foul (they had shown it to be three points) as they went to Instant Replay themselves counting it for two points. Different standards, that is…

4. 7:47′ before the end of the third quarter, Nikola Milutinov committed an obvious step violation before scoring, which – of course – was not charged.

5. 25” before the end of the game, Giannoulis Larentzakis hits Marius Grigonis in the face and instead of an unsportsmanlike foul, they counted NOTHING!

6. 10” before the end of the game, Kostas Papanikolaou hugged Panagiotis Kalaitzakis and instead of charging him with unsportsmanlike conduct, they were content to charge him with a simple foul.

The six specific decisions we referred to above show a clear intention by the referees to wrong our team once again.

KAE Panathinaikos AKTOR expresses its indignation and waits – FINALLY – for EEC to do the right thing, as it is not possible to continue to be exposed by referees who cannot rise to the occasion and insist on blowing the whistle with this anger against the team us. All of Europe recognizes the enormous effort we have put in to create an atmosphere that, together with our fans, does not exist in any European stadium. All of Greece sees that the behavior in the OAKA derbies is an advertisement for our country.

And all this while in previous years refereeing decisions deprived our team of victories against Olympiakos (eg the foul on Bacon in SEF which was not charged, the foul on Papagiannis in OAKA which was also not charged). There was the “candy” that Panathinaikos was not at the level it should have been when we didn’t… we had the right to speak, so this year the only thing that has changed is that our team is at a level that can beat everyone. The referees remained the same and UNCHANGED.

Know something, this era has passed forever. The time when some people judged the matches with “closed” eyes is over. We make it clear in all directions that we are not going to allow the effort and sweat of our athletes to be wronged again. The cat is back and the mice are back in their holes.

PS: Unfortunately for some, no matter how much they provoke with their behavior, reactions and words, the world of Panathinaikos does not bite and does not deal with them again. As long as they continue to do so, they will resemble protagonists in theater reviews.