Latest Greek football comictragedy simmering for past year

Never mind that the Greek national team won the 2004 Euro championship; never mind the fact that Olympiacos FC is among European football’s elite at the club level for a decade now; never mind the fact that FIFA and UEFA have placed Greece professional football under their supervision for the last five years – and, forget that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has pledged to clean up Greek football.

Images like those earlier this week at the Ionikos-Ergotelis game in the Piraeus-area district of Nikea, where promotion to Greece’s Super League division was at stake, weren’t just shameless; they were appalling images from bygone eras.

It is images like those that render Greek professional football as Europe’s “pauper”.

Not only is any comparison to the corresponding play offs in the English Championship bound to render the Greek equivalent as “third world”, what’s even worse is the complete capitulation of the domestic football product to the underworld and corruption.

This is what happened in Nikea this week – yet again.  

Referees threatened and intimidated at half-time in order to acquiesce to the “slaughter” that was to follow in the second half, as practically every play of the game was reminiscent of a gladiators’ arena.

What we saw in Nikea is rogue police officers led by the head of Greek Police for Piraeus, Panagiotis Tzeferakos – a close associate and according to others the best man of Mr. Tsirigotis, the owner of Ionikos – working harmonious with “heavies” to threaten and intimidate Ergotelis’ team officials – according to very public accusations made by the latter and despite promises of protection by law enforcement.

In one egregious instance, these same police officers snatched a mobile phone belonging to one of the Ergotelis officials, cursing him in the process, all in order to erase a video showing their illegal acts, itself a felony.

These same police officers prevented their colleagues, members of the relevant anti-hooligan squad, from even approaching the locker rooms of the referees and teams. This was to allow the “muscle” to instill and press home the “message” in the locker rooms and dugout that the Tsirigotis family had previously …conveyed on the pitch in the first half. This can be seen in all its “glory” from footage shot by Greece’s public television broadcaster. All part of a “no holes barred” attempt promote Ionikos to the Super League.

This latest fiasco includes the illicit “complicity” of the head of Greek Police, Mr. Karamalakis, himself with familial ties to Irakleio, Crete, as his subordinate for Piraeus, Mr. Tzeferakos, appears to be on duty every weekend that Mr. Tsirigotis’ Ionikos plays.

 It’s in Nikea where apparently there is no pandemic, where dozens of body guards and ex-cons, accompanied by Dimitris Melissanidis, can “watch” football games unhindered, and at times being able to intervene to “correct dissidents”.

Naturally, none of the above incidents is documented in the relevant police report – itself constituting the offence of filing a false report – given that it was compiled the very same people that engaged in the illegal behavior.  

This was the “cherry on the top of the cake” in a season that wherever Ionikos played the match was accompanied by serious referee mistakes, betting scandals, “heavies” on the sidelines, intimidation, violence and, even amid the pandemic, all these people circulating freely – with not even a hint of reprimand or infraction, as if some ordained individuals enjoy immunity in the country!

After all this despicable behavior, how will Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, PAOK, Aris and Atromitos sit down at the same table with Ionikos? How will they be able to negotiate together as “partners” in a League in order to come under the same television “roof”? Can anyone seriously claim that these clubs offer the same football product with Ionikos? Or, will they all have the same demands in terms of receiving off-sets from the state for their inclusion in the sports betting framework?      

Watching these images from Nikea, as broadcast by state television, leads one to wonder how much more Greek football will be downgraded. Can it fall even further?

By all accounts, it can!

The situation will reach a nadir if Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis and Deputy Minister Lefteris Economou tolerate the image of police officers, in full view, acting in dereliction of their duty and even violating the law by “partnering” with thugs to serve specific interests.

The police officers that were present at the Nikea pitch this past week should have already been suspended.

Can Greek football fall even further? 

By all accounts, it can!

When Deputy Sports Minister Lefteris Avgenakis watches, passively, entire football categories being run by “betting bosses” and their cronies, all of whom appear to enjoy immunity, and who acquire football teams without any state supervision.  

Can Greek football fall even further? 

By all accounts, it can!

When Mr. Avgenakis sees public safety and order being trampled on during so many games by the same ex-cons, and does nothing. He should have immediately suspended the league – as did his predecessors Kontonis and Vassiliadis – especially when this is happening on Crete, or involves teams from his own election constituency!

How on earth will he run again from Irakleio? What will he say to the voters?

At the ministry of citizens’ protection and the sports under-ministry some people should now be ashamed of themselves, given that they’re not resigning.  

All of the shameful incidents may be happening in football, yet they touch on a much wider spectrum involving the state’s core function, and they should deeply trouble the prime minister himself, who certainly cannot tolerate the country being downgraded to a “pauper” in any field or sector, and most assuredly he cannot tolerate the prevalence of the underworld.