Marinakis: “I had made a promise to myself to take the Conference League to my father’s grave…”

SkySports and Rob Dorsett managed to capture the longest interview of Vangelis Marinakis, with the owner of Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest talking about everything related to the teams he owns, as well as his philosophy around the work and business.

“It is good to have good facilities or very good and modern ships in shipping. But when you have all that and you don’t have a good captain or a good captain or good players, all that means nothing,” he commented, among other things, stressing that after the great success of the “red and whites” by winning the Conference League, the trophy went at his father’s grave because: “it is important to show what I have achieved to the man who inspired me to do all this. It was something I had promised myself and it happened.”

What he said about Edu and the global project he wants to work with him, Forest, Vasco da Gama, but also the comment about VARs, about which he said: “when you have all the time you need to watch from different angles, in a comfortable chair, and you can spend a minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, even five minutes to watch it and watch it again, then it’s very difficult to accept a human error”.

The interview in detail:

On how he would describe himself: I have a passion for everything I do and I have reached this level very quickly. I have been quite lucky and skilled, or having a combination of both, since I was very young and had professional success. Because of this success I can do the things I love most.

My job, shipping, is something that gives me great joy. It is at an international level. It is a global business and you should be able to compete with very large companies and even state-owned companies around the world. You should be able and be strong to be able to compete (with others). Be smart and make quick decisions so you can be competitive and successful even with big companies in this space.

Because he loves challenges both professionally and in football: It is something that gives me satisfaction but what I enjoy most is the journey. When you have succeeded and when you have won you can feel a little tired and a little stressed and even when everyone is celebrating and celebrating you don’t enjoy it the same. But the journey to victory is the one that has great meaning and value and I get great satisfaction from it.

On how he never seems to rest or rest somewhere and is always “hungry” for something more: You will have to put in endless effort, but at the same time during this journey you need to have immense joy in what you are doing. You can get passionate about it and argue to protect your team and your interests. The people of Piraeus are what the people of Nottingham are.

With the businesses I have, we have a lot of employees. It’s the people on the ships, the people in the offices and in football it’s the players, the fans and the coaching staff and what we do is 100% about the human factor. It is good to have good facilities or very good and modern ships in shipping. But when you have all that and you don’t have a good captain or a good captain or good players all that means nothing. So I believe that the power is in the people and not in me (meaning the people he has in his jobs).

The power comes from the people whether you work with or the fans. I see how people skills make the difference. What you have to do all the time is to work hard. The people next to you will have to see it to do the same. You have to be there to inspire them to do it and do it in a way that is competitive and a way that will bring victory. You should have a winning mentality all the time and it should come from the guy who cleans the facilities to the president, the owner, the coach and the team captain. Everyone together should be able to work together and be together. Unity in what you do is extremely important. That’s why whenever I talk I’m not talking about me. I use words that relate to all of us. We do it all.

For the European trophy with Olympiakos in the Conference, which was the first for a Greek team: “Two! It was the first time in UEFA history that one team won both competitions (the U19s won the Youth League).”

On taking the conference trophy to his father’s grave to share with him: “His grave is here in Piraeus, but we also sent the trophy to Crete, where we come from, and it went all over Greece. It was a special moment because it is important to show what I have achieved to the person who inspired me to do all this. It’s good not to forget your roots. Good for all of us. It was something I had promised myself and it happened.”

On Nottingham Forest and the positive feedback surrounding their rise and how special that is: “For me, this was my goal from the beginning. When I first said it people said it was crazy or stupid. But for me it is important because otherwise I wouldn’t do it. If Forest weren’t a big team I wouldn’t have bothered. For me it’s the memories I have.

It was the first time I had visited England and when I stayed there. It was early 1980 and there were 2 teams then: Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. They wore the same colors as Olympiakos: red. We are talking about thousands or millions of people who supported them.

You can see with the teams I have been involved with, the two teams in Greece and England: Olympiacos is by far the biggest team in Greece. Half of the population of Greece supports Olympiakos. Forest is one of the biggest teams in England. It’s the things we’ve achieved with this supporter base. For me this is very important.

We have under our ownership teams and many see it as a business. I don’t necessarily see it that way. It is very difficult to combine business with football and especially with big teams that need to win trophies and participate in Europe.

This does not necessarily mean that you can make money. The opposite is true in many cases. We don’t have an unlimited budget. We are not a government company or a company that can afford to lose money every year. We need to find the balance between what we spend and what we achieve. Of course it’s not easy. This takes a lot of hard work but we are doing our best to be competitive at a cost we can cover.”

On whether it is realistic for Forest to compete with the Big6 teams: “Yes, I think it’s realistic. And at the end of the day it’s up to us. I think it’s very important to take responsibility. So I take responsibility in bad times. In the good times we can share it.

It’s nice to share the responsibilities (and share) in the good times and the victories, but in the hard times you need to take responsibility, correct your mistakes and act accordingly so that you can recover, fight, come back and win.”

For Endo’s case: “Edu was a very good player and also a very good sporting and technical manager. I have great respect for him. The results we have seen over the years at Arsenal have been very good and he has done an excellent job. What I can say is how I would love to work with him on a much bigger project. A global project. I am optimistic that if this all goes ahead, it will be another successful venture for both of us. I’m very optimistic about it but we’ll have to see how it all develops and how it’s completed, if and when time permits.”

Because this is an important position: “Yes. I think there are a lot of people who would like to partner with us and work with us and that means they respect us and appreciate what we do. This gives us satisfaction that what we do has an impact on very good people in the field.”

On whether he will be involved in a Brazilian team, specifically Vasco Da Gama: “There are discussions and what I can say is that when I want to get involved it has to be something important. Tradition is very important and it always makes more sense to me to manage or own.

But in big clubs where we are talking about millions of fans, you don’t consider it an asset. I can’t use the word that I ‘bought’ Olympiacos or that I ‘bought’ Nottingham Forest. This is something huge. It’s for all the fans, for millions of people, so I can’t see it as a business.

It’s very important that whatever I do, it’s a team that has a big fan base. Portugal is an exception. It’s a smaller group. But what we need to do is for this team to improve as well and be one of the top six or seven teams in Portugal. It is very important because, for us, the Brazilian market is very important.

We have some very good players who have played over the years at Olympiakos and now at Nottingham Forest. But in Portugal, the Brazilians play as Europeans. It is a gateway, so to speak, for Brazilian players to Europe. And for me this is very important for the coming years.”

On the problems he faces with his reactions: “Passion is something you can’t help. You either have it or you don’t. I think it is very important for the leader of a team, a business, an organization, to try in every way to protect the interests of your team, company, family.

I see Nottingham Forest as a family. So when you see things that aren’t right, you can speak up about them. And believe me, so far, whenever we’ve called it, we’ve been absolutely right. We live in democratic countries, especially in Greece, where democracy was born.

So having an opinion and being able to share that opinion with people is not something that I think is bad or meaningless. We’ve seen things that are unbelievable and you have to have the courage and strength to back up what you say and be able to prove that what you say is right.”

For the decisions of the referees: “The other thing is that today, in football, we have VAR. So why do we have VAR? To double-check decisions that take place instantly and from different angles. Many times, you can be wrong. But when you have all the time you need to watch from different angles, in a comfortable chair, and you can take a minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, even five minutes to watch it and watch it again, then it is very difficult to accept a human error.

Unfortunately, we have seen big mistakes take place with VAR. Being human, you are bound to make mistakes. It’s natural to make mistakes. But when you see repeated mistakes by the same people, that’s something that needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed immediately. The authorities or the organizations – the FA, it’s the Premier League, it’s UEFA, it’s FIFA – they have a duty to all of us to put all this right.”