Baltakos: Everything he said about the Cup final, the National Team, refereeing and VAR

THE Takis Baltakos was a guest on Blue Sky’s “Window on Sports” and talked about several issues. The president of EPO, among other things, commented on his stay Poget in National team of Greecereferred to the Cup final but also to arbitration.

Everything he said in detail:

For Goal Technology and the semi-automatic offside and whether this cost will be borne by the PAE or the State?

“It is a discussion that has started. Last week there was a meeting and we had a discussion about it. We are definitely interested in increasing the possibilities of VAR and from then on, what the State will do, will be the one to decide. That is why we will ask to have a meeting with the competent minister so that this issue can be put on track. I don’t know what will happen in the end. The VAR contract expires in September, so we have time to see what will happen in the relevant discussion with the State.”

For the sports center of the national team:

“As a federation, the actions we have taken are to collect the necessary amount, because it makes no sense to do exercises on paper if you don’t have the money. The money is currently there. EPO has the possibility to immediately start the construction of a training center. That was the foundation. From there, there are three different perspectives that by June we will have settled and immediately after that the construction of the project will begin.”

For the match against Kazakhstan and the matter of Poget’s stay whether it will be decided by the qualification or not for the Euro:

“Before the matches we don’t talk about such things and it makes no sense to say so. Right now the first game is the priority and of course we hope the second one as well. From here on all these things will be discussed. Mr. Poyet’s contract expires on March 31 and we don’t discuss things like that before the games because it spoils the atmosphere in the team.”

Where will the final be held?

“The announcement clearly says that when one team is from Athens and the other from Thessaloniki, as in this case, then the match takes place in Volos, in an intermediate city after all. We cannot change the notice, because if we do, the management of the EPO falls. The only way to change the proclamation is for the two groups to agree. If they don’t agree, then we will do what the notice says. That is, the match will take place in Volos or in a city related to Volos. If they agree to play either in Athens or in Thessaloniki, then we will see what kind of agreement this is and we will decide accordingly. This will be done next week, next Wednesday we will have a meeting on this issue.”

For Volos and without people, if this only applies to last year or does it apply to this year as well based on what Achilles Beos had said and if he had communicated with him?

“I don’t know, you have to ask Mr. Beo. We will definitely be in touch with him. I don’t know if it will stick. I don’t get the feeling it will stick because the teams aren’t the same. Last year the two teams that had qualified for the final, their fans had created incidents in the same city a few years ago and this had scared Mr Beo. It had rather alarmed him, not scared him because he is not scared easily. This year the rivalry between the two teams is not the same, so it is very likely that he will have a different opinion.”

Why was Takos Baltakos hunted by some from the first day of assuming the presidency of the EPO? Were you hounded by some because you weren’t their choice?

“Perhaps you should ask some people. That’s what I’m guessing, what you say is the most likely. But the ones who have to answer are the ones who did it. As you can see, I didn’t get hurt. I’m not affected, I’m not involved, I’m not concerned, I’m not interested”

About KED and arbitration and why elite referees are not coming?

“It is not at all up to the EPO to bring foreign elite referees. It is not up to the KED which referee will come, because what the KED does is to send relevant questions to the Federations. The foreign Federations decide and they will tell you: “We have, we don’t have, we will send, we will not send”. It is not up to KED to decide. It is something that has been misunderstood in Greece by some, that is, not by all. In other words, they think that KED can tell a French referee “come and play”. But that doesn’t happen. The French or German Federation will decide. You can’t force them. We ask and they say “we have him”. You can’t choose because they have their own leagues. Do they think here in Greece that it makes sense for the Danish FA not to keep one of their own good referees from playing in their league and send him to Greece why would they do that? Why should he do it?’

Regarding the possible return of Greek referees to the matches given the toxicity in Greek football and what does UEFA tell us?

“UEFA keeps telling us that the Greek referees must return. What else can UEFA say? It is natural to want smoothness. It is not normal for foreign referees to come to Greece. UEFA wants us to return 100% to Greek referees. It may not happen now, but he wants us to progressively start accepting it and move towards it. No other way”.