Letter of Olympiacos FC to the Hellenic Football Fededation

Gentlemen,

As you know, this Sunday, 19 February 2023, OLYMPIACOS FC and LAMIA FC will play against each other in Lamia for the Supreleague 1 Championship at Lamia Stadium. OLYMPIACOS FC is amongst the championship contenders and LAMIA FC amongst the Clubs struggling to remain in the Superleague 1.

In this – in every respect – crucial game the CRC decided to appoint as Referee of the game Mr. Konstantinos Katikos, one of the most unsuitable Referees on the refereeing lists.

We remind you that last July when the referees lists for the current season were decides the CRC decided that this particular Referee does not meet the requirements to promote to the first division despite the intense pressure by Mr. P. Demetriou and St. Mandalos to be included in the Referees List for Superleague 1 championship.

It is most certain that Mr. Benett is aware of this as he was one of the CRC Members involved in making this decision and was in full agreement with Mr. Katikos’ incompetence.

Oddly enough, when Mr. Benett became Chairman of the CRC he changed his mind and «promoted» him to a Suprelague 1 Referee without having officiated any match since the day the CRC deemed him unfit to officiate first division matches, making him the fastest evolving referee in Greece.

And while this particular Referee has this particular past, we came to a point today where Mr. Katikos is appointed (by whom, really?) in such a crucial game, and even more so with Mr. Tsagarakis appointed as 4th official; A Referee who is under scrutiny for last week’s match ASTERAS TRIPOLIS – PAOK FC for which just yesterday the CRC was forced to publicly apologize.

It is obvious that the choice of this Referee does not meet the standards of such a match. This appointment is provocative and at the same time is a time bomb on the foundations of the league at an extremely crucial point.

We urge you, even now, at the last minute, to replace Mr. Katikos while there is still time. Otherwise, we hold you solely responsible for anything that happens to the Superleague 1 Championship from now on.