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Has the Greek Super League trust in its president?

10 November 2010 / 17:11:51  GRReporter
6104 reads

Will the Greek football championship find its balance finally? Will the Super League fight the phenomenon of arranged matches? Will it cope with the aggression on stadiums? The management of the league needs to find solutions to these and other urgent issues as soon as possible. But now instead of solving them the management board is struggling with another phenomenon ... lack of trust. And sparks continuously fly between Vangelis Marinakis and the presidents of AEK and Panathinaikos Stavros Adamidis and Nicolas Pateras...

The last two expressed in letters to the Board their discontent with Marinakis’ acts and openly criticized him that he puts the interest of his club before that of the others’. Pateras stressed that Marinakis is the first president in the history of the Super League who dares to visit the referee locker rooms and to claim certain referees to be removed from the matches of his team. He appealed to him to become reasonable and to put prosperity of football and society before the temporary benefits for his team.
 
Here is a part of the letter of Pateras, cited by www.sport.gr: "Panathinaikos and most teams voted for Mr. Marinakis to be the president of the Super League, having trust in someone new in the world of football in order to be able to improve together some things like the fight against aggression on stadiums, the attitude of the Super League to the state and to the Greek football federation, and to keep our income during the economic crisis ... To our great surprise we saw the president to oppose referees inelegantly during the Iraklis-Olympiakos match with referee Mr. Statopoulos and during the match between Aris-Panathinaikos with referee Mr. Daloukas... A few days ago we learned from the press that Mr. Marinakis has asked the federation to remove the referee Kakou from the matches of Karaiskaki because he had influenced the assessment of our derby... To be the president of the Super League doesn’t mean to behave as the president of your team but as a leader who cares first for the interest of all teams and then for the interest of your team.” In his letter Pateras stressed that none of the previous presidents of the Super League did dare to visit the dressing rooms of the referees, nor to make comments in public or advise them. According to him, the greens abstained from responding to challenges such as to visit the changing rooms at the Karaiskaki and OAKA stadiums and to ask the referee Daloukas to be removed in the name of football. However, he appealed to all to help Marinakis become reasonable and put the football and society over the temporary benefits for his team.

Criticisms of Pateras and Adamidis were discussed during the last meeting of the Super League. They requested from AEK and Panathinaikos explanations for the visits to the referees dressing rooms and for the constant demands to the Greek Football Federation to remove and exclude referees from the matches of Olympiakos. As the site informs, Vangelis Marinakis said after the meeting he would not like to refer to the letters of Panathinaikos and AEK and the answers to the questions would appear in the press release of the meeting. Concerning the problem of the lack of trust in him, he was adamant that there is no such a problem and said that the Super League continues to work joining the efforts of all. Regarding the arranged matches he said: "We should clarify our position. These publications do not concern us. A picture is being drawn that has nothing in common with reality. We are fighting and it would be better not to smear football before announcing the decisions." Vangelis Marinakis was elected president of the Super League in late August, two months after receiving the full stake of the club of Olympiakos. The first task he said the League has to undertake is to solve important problems such as television rights, aggression on stadiums and improving the level of the Greek championship. Marinakis is the sixth president in a row of the Super League. Petros Kokkalis, Yannis Vardinoyanis, Costas Piladakis, Nikos and Nikos Pateras Tanopulos sat in the chair before him.

Tags: Super LeagueGreeceVangelis MarinakisNicolas PaterasAEKPanathinaikosTrustSport
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