World Soccer - UK 2020-05)

eyewitness

told UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin, while

also warning that clubs could be expelled

from the top flight if reforms are not

complied with.

But Nikos Syriodis, a journalist, argues

that many governments have tried to

reform Greek football and all have failed.

“The owners are only looking out for

their own interests,” says Syriodis. “Greek

football has been sick for decades.”

Powerful businessmen have long

been attracted to Greek clubs, particularly

the big four of AEK Athens, Olympiakos,

Panathinaikos and PAOK – and

especially since Greek football was

professionalised in the late 1970s. But

Greece’s economic crisis has created

opportunities over the past decade or

so for an evolving breed of oligarch to

tighten the nexus between football,

business and politics.

Becoming a successful president

of a Greek club comes with an army of

fanatical fans, which can help to protect

the owner against unfavourable political

decisions or even prosecutions, and can

help them advance their interests and

influence beyond the sport.

Shipping magnate and media tycoon

Marinakis became the owner and

president of Olympiakos in 2010 and the

club won successive league titles in the

first seven years of his ownership. Over

the years he acquired several media

outlets and leveraged the club’s fanatical

support to enter politics. In 2014 he

became a councillor in Piraeus and his

sidekick Yiannis Moralis, Olympiakos’

vice-president, became mayor.

In recent years PAOK have emerged

as serious challengers to Olympiakos –

and therefore Marinakis’ supremacy

• and the hostilities have exploded.
  PAOK’s revival from a long period of
  mediocrity and financial crisis started in
  2012 when the Greek-Russian billionaire
  Savvidis, who is also a shipping magnate
  and media baron, bought and invested
  heavily in the struggling club, using his
  subsequent success and popularity
  to buy up huge swathes of assets in
  Thessaloniki, including hotels, real estate,
  more media outlets and a share of the
  lucrative port.
  Savvidis was close to the left-wing
  Syriza party, who were in power from
  2015 to 2019, while Marinakis supports
  the centre-right government of New

“The owners are only looking out for

their own interests. Greek football

has been sick for decades”

Journalist Nikos Syriodis

Message...PAOK fans make

their feelings known

(below and right)