Announcement of the E.F.O.E.P.A. Board of Directors for public complaints

In detail, the announcement:

“The Board of the Table Tennis Federation was surprised to see on February 6, 2024 a published interview-complaint of a member of the Board of Directors, at that time General Secretary of the Federation, on a well-known website and immediately set up a three-member committee, which, in collaboration with the legal advisor of Federation, was authorized to take depositions from all involved in order for the Board to establish the validity of the complaints.

Committee members collected statements from a total of 20 signatories, which were recorded in approximately 170 pages and then presented to the Board.

On 01/07/2024 the Board of Directors met, thoroughly examined the statements and came to the following conclusions:

The complaints that came to light that an athlete of the National team, “had come to a match at SEF drunk and had attacked a team coach” and that “he had raised his hand to an athlete before”, are vague, not confirmed by any testimony or other element and it is questionable because they happened after such a long time.

Also, the complainant’s conclusion that the athlete “is a person capable of physically harming another human being” is considered completely arbitrary and baseless and shows an obsession against the athlete that almost everyone speaks well of. And the admission by the complainant herself that even now, if the athlete apologizes, she will withdraw the complaints, in itself overturns the theories that the athlete is a dangerous person.

The complaints against the federal coach that: a) “the athletes curse me with the tolerance of the coach”, b) “the athlete was looking for how the messages reached my hands and did not reprimand him”, c) “a great burden falls to the coach, as with his attitude he supports these behaviors, he did not reprimand anyone even after ten days” were not confirmed by any testimony and furthermore it emerged that the coach had informed the President of EFOEPA, who told him that he himself would deal with the issue, as it happened.

The complainant’s insistence on his removal from the position of national coach does not seem to have a concrete basis.

Regarding the existence of a clique in the National team, according to the complaint, which intimidates and bullies sportsmen and women or for an athlete who receives a terrible war from his fellow athletes, the Commission insisted on relevant questions to all those who were examined and no one came up with that there are athletes who bully some others within the team. Some testified that there are occasional disagreements between them, that there is often sports competition, that there are different groups, but absolutely no one testified that they are afraid or that they feel threatened.

Regarding the issue of bullying among the athletes, it was recorded that there was never any bullying (in the sense of harassment) towards any female or male athlete, while the two federal coaches are admitted to have a good cooperation with each other.

Finally, it is not established that there is any serious problem during the trainings or matches of the National team, at least until December 2023. From then on, after some attendances of the complainant at trainings or other interventions by her and much more after the complaint on the sports website, the various posts on social media, the statements, the lawsuits, lawsuits and complaints, the climate in the National team has deteriorated a lot, an expected fact.

In the previous period, however, there was, in no case, the climate described in the complaint of Ms. Stathis, who seems to exaggerate the events, to interpret them arbitrarily and perhaps to manipulate athletes in her circle, possibly in order to achieve the removal of the federal coach, which he publicly stated that he wishes, and to offend the president who, also, has publicly stated that he will not support in the upcoming elections.

From many testimonies, serious responsibilities of Ms. Stathis emerge, who spoke with insulting comments and reduced the personality of the athletes. Also, the fact that so many public complaints were made, which turned out to be unfounded and are actually supported by only two people in her circle, raises many questions about the motives and reasons that were made.

Besides, apart from the public complaints, she has proceeded with lawsuits against the Federation and most of the members of the Board of Directors, including the representative of the athletes, during a period, in fact, when she was preparing for the pre-Olympic tournament that brought her the sixth consecutive Olympic qualification.

He has recently appealed against a decision of the ASEAD, which rejected the appeal, vindicating the Federation.

Finally, Ms. Stathi has filed a lawsuit, requesting high monetary compensation from an athlete of the National team for phrases he wrote against her in a group chat between friends of athletes of the National team, while the athlete himself has filed a lawsuit for illegal interception of the specific message.

For this reason, the Board of Directors by a majority considers that it does not have the authority to decide on the content of the messages, which, it seems, were intercepted by a closed group conversation between friends before there was a decision by the relevant judicial bodies.