GREECEDemocracy that assumed office in July
- Marinakis was also best man at
the wedding of prime minister Mitsotakis’
sister, who is godmother to his son.
The oligarch owners have clashed
repeatedly in recent years in a proxy
war fought through media mouthpieces
over footballing disputes, squabbles over
assets, and accusations of political and
sporting favouritism and match fixing.
Several figures at the Greek Football
Federation (HFF) have faced corruption
charges over the years and Marinakis,
who bought Nottingham Forest in 2017,
has faced several match-fixing and
various organised-crime charges since - Marinakis vehemently denied all
the allegations, which he says were
politically motivated, and all charges have
now been either dismissed or dropped.
With battles in the courts and the
political sphere frequently overshadowing
action on the pitch, FIFA and UEFA
intervened in October 2016, with FIFA
effectively running the HFF through
a normalisation committee until
elections in 2017 for a new president
and executive board. An independent
sports commission and refereeing body
overseen by UEFA was established, and
foreign referees were flown in to officiate
big matches and derbies.
The Syriza government passed
legislation aimed at expanding its ability
to impose disciplinary measures over
football clubs and it suspended the
league several times due to violent
incidents, while also docking points and
frequently banning fans en masse for
infractions. But it did nothing to challenge
the power of the oligarch presidents and
little to quell the problems.
While PAOK had previously accused
the HFF of being controlled by Marinakis,
the FIFA-directed drive for reform led
Olympiakos to claim a new federation
president was supported by Savvidis.
In February 2018 a crunch match
between PAOK and Olympiakos was
abandoned before kick-off after
Olympiakos’ then coach, Oscar Garcia,
was struck by a cashier roll thrown from
the stands. Later that season Savvidis
was banned from all matches for a year
after he stormed onto the pitch while
armed with a holstered gun to confront
the referee during a match between
PAOK and AEK.
The Greek Super
League has now
lost its automatic
Champions League
qualification spot and
the national team has
slipped to 54th in
FIFA’s world rankings,
down from 12th in- However, the
league has become
more competitive in recent seasons and
Olympiakos embarked on a good run in
Europe this season, eliminating Arsenal
from the Europa League.
A new play-off structure was
introduced this term whereby the top six
teams carry their points forward from the
regular season and then play each other
in a mini-league designed to make more
derbies between the big teams.
But this campaign also further
underscored the intractable nature of
the Greek game’s problems. Referees
threatened to strike in January 2020 after
attacks on officials and their homes, and
then the dispute over Savvidis’ alleged
ownership of Xanthi ratcheted up the
tension to another level.
Seriously reforming
Greek football is likely
to mean breaking the
stranglehold that the
oligarchs wield over
clubs and regulating^
the way clubs are run,
says sports journalist
Alexandros Kottis,
who maintains: “The
government makes
statements but they are aware that they
can’t actually compete with the power of
the club presidents.
“They don’t want to create too many
fights with these guys who are also
[powerful] media owners...the Greek
government, even if it’s New Democracy
or Syriza, right or left, are not strong
enough do this.”
Football journalist Aleka Zoumi agrees
and thinks the government is only talking
about reforms for show, stating “The
memorandum signed with FIFA and
UEFA will not bring any real results.”
The case against PAOK is now back
in the courts, with the point deductions
yet to be confirmed, while the league is
now suspended indefinitely due to the
outbreak of the coronavirus, from which
Marinakis has recently recovered after
testing positive in March.
In the meantime, few seem to believe
that Greek football can so easily be
nursed back to health.Armed...PAOK owner
Ivan SavvidisTitle race...PAOK’s Diego Biseswar
takes on Ruben Semedo (left) and
Omar ElabdellaouiPowerful...Olympiakos
president Evangelos
Marinakis