Diakogiannis: “Repaying the debt of KAE Aris is one of our commitments – The team will be strengthened”

THE Mars welcomes Manresa tomorrow for the EuroCup (21/10, 20:00) after a series of bad performances and the CEO of KAE of the Thessaloniki team, Dear Diakoiannisgave answers to burning questions at a press conference. He referred to the repayment of KAE’s debt, appeared to express his support for Bogdan Karajcic and announced aid.

“We are preparing for the match with Manresa, but at the same time we want to share some administrative developments. The team paid off much of its debt. This is a historic moment, but not a great success, because it is part of our commitments, it is the way we want the club to operate from now on. Beyond the debt, we continue to realize our goals. We want to operate administratively differently, emphasizing the infrastructure, the pitch, the processes of how our finances work, the extroversion, the way we work with our partners and at the same time how we prepare for the matches. All this is still far from perfect, because we have a lot of time and a long way to go, but there is clear progress and by the end of the year we will see that we have reached a satisfactory degree of what we want. We have supporting speech in the main part, the racing part. We have not started racing as we would like, we have seen the weaknesses that have arisen and we are all working to bring improvement. Throughout this process, our people are always there and we thank them for supporting us. It’s something we don’t take for granted. We all continue to work together to get Mars where we all want it».

He also spoke:

For the competition: “I am in charge of the team’s administrative department and Nikos (S.S. Zisis) of the competition department. There are discussions, everything starts with a shot. Racing is not something you… order and it comes after ten minutes. We all see that the competition is not going as we wanted, so, yes, there will be reinforcement, so that we can reach the level we expect, even though it is a transitional year. At the same time, however, we want to see something better all together».

For the administrative part: “Everything is new. We don’t want to follow some model, in which some money goes in, a debt is created, the team seems to be doing better for a year, and after two or three years the debt “explodes” in the hands of some others. A big part of our job is to make sure this doesn’t happen again on Mars. We need to build solid foundations so we can grow together. Mars is nothing without its world, we must take steps forward».

On whether there is trust in the persons leading the game plan: “Yes, there is trust in the persons leading the game plan. The team is new and has not only changed variables in the field, but everywhere in its organization».

For the arbitration: “In the match against Maroussi, the referee did not help, support or respect the club. There were things that didn’t make sense. However, we should not find many excuses. We have several internal issues to resolve so that the club can claim what it deserves».