Emanuela Karastoyanova
The stadiums OAKA and SEF will be with lowered expenses and decreased by 14% to 15 percent budget for the year 2010. This was announced by the Secretary general of sport Panos Bitsaktsis before journalists during his meeting with the presidents of the board of directors of SEF and OAKA – Maria Manidaki and Andonia Zafiropoulou. The decision for the decrease in the expenses of OAKA and SEF has been taken under the initiative of the boards of directors of the stadiums and comes as a response of the desperate financial situation of the country at present. One of the main goals of SEF for 2010 is the entry of the stadium in the Program for government subsidizing. As a considerable success Manidaki pointed out the decrease of the budget of the stadium for 2010 by 14%. This are only few of the steps which the management of SEF intends to make in relation to the critical financial situation. Other additional resources are expected to be found, which will bring income to the stadium. According to Manidaki such an investment is “the green building” which will be build on the premises of the stadium on a territory of 6 sq. km. The building will serve as an exhibition hall and it is expected to contribute to the increase of the income of SEF. Another change which is being planned is in the working schedule of the employees. It is expected that the extra working hours of the employees will be cut and from this measure will be saved about 1 000 000 euro. Manidaki also added in the list of measures for handling the difficult financial situation the breaking of the contracts for cooperation with the companies for cleaning and maintenance of the stadium. As she clarified 180 employees of SEF agreed to do this job with no remuneration, who “show great understanding in the critical moment”…
A solution to the problem with the financial crisis is also searching the board of directors of OAKA. As Andonia Zafiropoulou clarified number one goal for this year is the maximum decrease of the expenses of the stadium. Just like in the case of SEF, in the case of OAKA the extra working hours of the employees will also be cut. The expired contracts with the security companies, the companies for cleaning and maintenance of the sports equipment will not be renewed. Instead tenders will be held in order to be found companies which offer the same services at a lower price. Zafiropoulou stated that among the payment contracts they checked which the stadium has with various federations, sports companies and football clubs there are some which have been found to be illegal and which the management has already terminated.
As far as the debts of the teams towards the OAKA stadium are concerned, Zafiropoulou stated that PAE AEK owes the stadium 1.197.250 euro, PAE Panathinaikos – 487.530 euro and KAE Panathinaikos 396.307 euro. The debts of KAE Olympiakos towards the SEF stadium are 100 000 euro said on the other part Maria Manidaki.