Baltakos: “Mr. Lanois should reinstate the referees and judge them by November”

Its former president EPO, Takis Baltakosspeaking on SKAI TV and the Monobala show, emphasized his opposition to the “caratomisation” of nine referees – two of whom are international – by the French referee, Stéphane Lanois.

“Did he know them beforehand? Had he seen them? Did he judge them without seeing them? Did someone from Greece tell him, and if he told him, who is he, that they don’t do it? And why don’t they?’ he characteristically wondered and suggested:

“He must immediately restore the nine referees and especially the two international ones to the boards and judge them if he wants, he has every right until November when the league stops and if he wants to remove 19 and not 9 referees from the boards!”

What he said in detail

“In our days, the two most competitive championships that have existed in the history of Greek football took place. Personally, I am very pleased with the course of the arbitration in these two years. On the contrary, I am not very happy about what is being done now. In other words, I do not agree at all with the way in which nine referees of Super League 1, two of which are international, were “caratomized”. I didn’t like that at all. And I didn’t like it at all for the reason that the new chief referee, Mr. Lanois, before he could set foot in Greece, gave a table which does not include, among others, two international referees, Diamantopoulos and Manouhos. How did this happen? I am very impressed by this whole thing. Did he know them beforehand? Had he seen them? Did he judge them without seeing them? Did someone from Greece tell him, and if he told him, who is he, that they don’t do it? And they don’t why? For something that happened last year or the year before? It is something that I personally do not think should continue, that is, I think that Mr. Lanois should immediately restore the nine referees and especially the two international ones to the tables and judge them if he wants, he has every right until November when he stops championship and if he wants to remove 19 and not 9 referees from the tables!”.

– However, Lanois does not have absolute support and great power because Mr. Rossetti brought him from Europe, he basically didn’t ask anyone, that is, he basically said “take him”, so we must have absolute trust in him, right?

“Of course not. And to give explanations there, or to give explanations to his president in Mr. Biallo, to the president of the French federation. In other words, how did this man, even before setting foot in Greece, display paintings without these referees? And we’re going to keep it going, we’re not done tonight. The second part, what you said about Rossetti, is also something that gives me a very negative impression. Mr. Rossetti is not the president of UEFA, he is a director, the Director of Refereeing. Respect may exist towards his person, but he does not cease to be a subordinate of Mr. Theodoridis. So here Mr. Theodoridis, who is Greek and knows the Greek league, must be protected. Is Theodoridis protected like this? Is this how UEFA is protected? Is it logical for an offside to be seen wrongly by any agent of any team and that Rossetti is to blame, therefore Theodoridis, therefore UEFA? Is all this in the knowledge of Mr. Ceferin? I doubt if all this is known to him. Let’s not forget that even the EPO statutes do not provide for such arrangements, that is, for the chief referee of UEFA to come and say “you will take him”. No sir, you will give three, you will say three names. Where does the UEFA statute say that Mr. Rossetti can intervene and say that you will take this head referee. And to whom will this chief referee owe allegiance? Will he owe loyalty to the EPO or to Mr. Rossetti?”

– Essentially, you are saying that Mr. Makis Gagatsis is not starting his term as your successor in the presidency of EPO well?

“I will tell you two things. First of all, I want to say something about Kuya, unrelated of course to the previous ones. Kougias made a lot of fuss last year about his own team Corinth and the refereeing they had. I said it publicly that he was right, as he suffered something. Apart from him, however, I did not see anyone else suffer anything. The championship was played until the last matchday and with a goal that Ansarifard did not score, PAOK won the championship. Now Gagatsis is 41 years old, this man has a perspective ahead of him, he is a hope for Greek football. It started very well with Jovanovic, with the training center, with the Swiss player he brings. Therefore, third parties, whoever they may be, should not expose him with errors in the matters of arbitration, because it is a mistake. What happened, let’s say that Rossetti decides, Rossetti judges. But neither the EPO, UEFA, nor FIFA statutes say this.”