Could things be worse without UEFA/FIFA?

By Dionysis Delis

UEFA and FIFA want to leave Greece. They have explained it in all possible ways. They want to conclude their monitoring of Greek football by next summer.

Obviously, they have already started writing the famous letters, always very careful how to phrase them. Because these there the letters where they offer their assessment: of the difficult task they faced, but also of the success with which they fulfilled their mission to Greece.

Success? Task? Well it is not very proper to let some minor details ruin a good story.

Besides, important persons honored us with their presence. Petr Fousek. Herbert Hübel. We also had Zoran Lakovic and Luca Nicola. Dear reader, try to keep to your good manners.

But seriously now: We can only bid farewell to them. And if they are going to write to us again, let them be only letters of parting and goodbye.

Because, however hard they try to find nice phrasing for the grand finale, the reality is very concrete. When they arrived, Greek football was in bad shape. Now it’s in the worst possible condition. In a way, their responsibility for the situation of Greekfootball is bigger than the responsibility of the Grammenos’ administration or the responsibility of Pereira. And to that we can only offer a very simple explanation. If UEFA and FIFA wanted, the situation in Greek football would have been very different. The situation is as it is because they wanted it to be like that.

Because they have allowed things to remain as they are and we have reached a point where we take a problematic situation as normal.

Did you see yesterday’s match at Nea Smyrni? What was different from previous matches? This is Greece’s Super League at its best.

It was in this league that Brown Ideye accidentally steps on a player, whom he had not seen, at the AEK-Aris match and gets a straight red card and a two match penalty.

It is here that when PAOK’s Giannoulis steps on Panionios’s Masouras, whom he had plainly in his view, and does not even face a yellow card.

In the same way that Mattos did not receive a yellow card despite falling upon the unlucky Papanikolaou in a rugby-style attack, during the same match and at the moment of 0-0

And when in Super League 1, Pasalides attempts to end Guilherme’s footbal career, during the Asteras-Olympiacos match, only after the VAR did the referee chose to show a red card, because initially he only saw something worthy of a yellow card. And Pasalides receives only a one-match penalty and an 80 euro fine.

This is the balance of the championship, during the supposed ‘monitoring’ by the confederation. This is their work

And it does not stop here.

During the era of Fousek and Hübel, Greek football hit rock bottom.

The national team reached its lowest ranking. Four out of five Greek Clubs were kicked out of the European Championships after the first preliminary round. And unless Olympiacos makes the big surprise during Europa League, it is highly probable that by the 2021-2022 season Greece would only have 4 clubs in the European Championships: the champion in the first preliminary round of Champions League and the other three clubs at the second preliminary round of Europa League 2.

And to this we add the supposed success of PAOK that has reached 50 matches without defeat as an example of the supposed quality of competition that FIFA and UEFA have guaranteed.

Should we also point to the empty coffers of the bankrupt EPO (Greek Football Association?

And now we have finally come to the million dollar question: What was the help actually provided by UEFA/FIFA? To what extent did they actually contributed to bringing Greek football back into shape?

They found it unconscious and now they leave it half-dead.

And we are talking about a product that some are paying for. Upon which they have invested millions of euros. And which is now going straight into a meltdown that everybody pretends not to see coming.

This is the kind of football that Hübel and Fousek will behind them in the summer. In all its glory. And with the necessary photo-ops of handshakes and smiles to ‘testify’ for their success.

One could not expect something different in the empire of clichés.

But really, why do they want to meet with the Big 4 owners in Switzerland?

What are they planning to tell Vangelis Marinakis in regards to this situation? And, in particular, what are they planning to ask from him?

To continue looking at the series of PAOK wins as if through a looking glass?

To turn a blind eye to the triangular relations of RFA and the case of multi-ownership that we already know, and possibly other that we know not yet of?

To continue to contribute, without protest or regret, the 4 million euros –through Olympiacos– to EPO, that enable the representatives of the so-called ‘Clean Up’ to continue hiring their cronies in order to have the most expensive Central Refereeing Committee in Europe and just watch it go its own way?

To pray that the next Guilherme will stand the attack by the next Pasalides?

Or to sit back and enjoy another derby march with Panathaikos at Karaiskaki stadium without spectators for the second time in three years?

Personally I do not think that this meeting will take place.

On second thoughts: It’d be better if it didn’t take place. It is not actually a good idea.

PS. Marinakis could send a good old-fashioned jester in his place to take part in the meeting. This is what they deserve. At least this could be fun.