Blackhawk

Good post teke. If you think that the situation in Superleague is bad, the problems in the lower divisions are even worse. In the Football League, which is also a professional league, two teams did not finish the season this year, and some teams don't have money to pay the referees as they are supposed to do. God only knows what's going on in the amateur leagues. EPO needs to be restructured from the ground up.

The game of "chicken" between EPO/Marinakis and the Undersecretary of Sports Stavros Kontonis continues. Yesterday a meeting between Kontonis, EPO and UEFA/FIFA was held in Athens, which did not produce any results. FIFA's representative at the meeting was the head of the Cypriot FA. Of interest is the fact a relative of his is involved in the 2011 Koriopolis scandal. Go figure. EPO/marinakis sticks to it's position, that government is meddling in their affairs by cancelling the cup, and that's why they involved FIFA in the matter and took the matter to the supreme court. They refuse to engage in any negotiations with the government to resolve the issue. FIFA says if the cup does not resume, Greece faces punishment by the international federation, but refuses to even listen to the charges of corruption in Greek soccer. Kontonis says that the cup will resume as long as people that have been charged with criminal wrongdoing resign from their posts. The government also refuses to back down from cancelling the cup competition. In other words each side is playing their game. Let's see if and when somebody backs down. The next milestone is the decision by the supreme court considering EPO's request to make the governments decision unlawful. The decision should be made next week. In the meantime the Greek press is now in a Grexit hysteria phase, even though FIFA did not mention what the punishment might be.

Chatziisaias is taking part in full practices and might be available for Sunday's game.

5,592 the official attendance for the game.

And Moras, who is at fault on the goal.

Attempts on goal are 15-5 in favor of Iceland

And almost 2:4

2:3

This game could have easily been 3:5 right now. Iceland the superior team on the field. Tzavallas in for Siovas

Starting this Sunday all games start at the same time (19:00 Greek Time), which means coverage will spotty. Antenna Satellite/Pacific will televise two games live, switching from one to the other depending on the action. Those games are: Panathinaikos - Veroia Panionios - PAOK Sport Plus will show all 4 games it has rights to, but only one game will be live: Olympiakos - Panthrakikos - Live Kalloni - AEK - Delayed at 13:30 CDT Atromitos - Panaitolikos, Delayed at 15:30 CDT Iraklis - Tripoli, delayed at 17:30 CDT All games will be televised live in Greece on Nova Sport. if you want full details, send me a pm and I will give you a link to my TV Schedule page.

PAE PAOK filed an appeal with EPO concerning the fines in the PAOK - Olympiakos cup game. The hope is that the 5 point deduction will become 3 points. Also, since PAOK does not have the right for an appeal in the two game against Kalloni and Panionios, they have asked the EPO prosecutor to intervene and overturn the punishment, since the fines were for lighting up flares, and this season not a single team has been punished for this action. In other words the punishment was selectively enforced.

Dimitriadis scored two goals for the U-19 NT in EURO qualifying game against Georgia.

Nikopolidis

4,450

Savvidis is thinking of creating TV channel to televise PAOK games:

Started to watch the game on Laola, but could not stand to watch the whole game. Pathetic. if can't beat Albania and lose to Israel at home, you have no right to speak about qualifying from this group.

UEFA/FIFA never came out spelling what the exact consequences will be. All they did was sent a warning that there will be some if the cup competition is not played.

I hope UEFA/FIFA and IOC bans all our teams and athletes. Nothing better than one corrupted organization punishing other corrupted organizations. As it is I think this "UEFA will ban our teams from Europe" is nothing but a scare tactic used by EPO every time they are under pressure. For once I would really like the government to push the issue all the way through.

Let's not forget that Marinakis is a share holder (20%) in SKAI TV. Marinakis and Alafouzos are working together more than we think, although publicly they are projecting the image of bitter enemies.

Looks like Savvidis finally realized that people he tries to work with will eventually stab him in the back. I think Marinakis and Alafouzos are working together (after all they are business partners at SKAI TV) to keep the current status quo that benefits both. Alafouzos, the snake that he is will try to get the most out of this at PAOK's and AEK's expense. Just like he did with the -15 points 2 years ago. As a result he will get his ticket to CL qualifying I also believe Kontonis lost the plot, and eventually will be replaced by Tsipras, as I think Marinakis is putting pressure on Tsipras. The result of it all will be that the cup will be played, and PAOK will suffer in the end as usual. Worst of all, nothing will be done to change state of Greek soccer.

One of the greatest players of all time, Johan Cruyff, died of cancer today at the age of 68. Player for Ajax and Barcelona during his best years, as well as the great Dutch national team in 1970's. Later played few seasons in NASL, before returning to Holland to finish his career at Ajax and Feyenoord. He was a heavy smoker and died of lung cancer. He apparently smoked 5 packs of cigarettes a day. Heard Antoniadis on radio today saying that during the Wembley final in 1971 he saw Cruyff smoke one cigarette after another on the bench during half-time. Cruyff at Toumba in 1973 with Koudas.

After today's EPO decision, the situation is as follows: STANDINGS AFTER ROUND 27 4. Panionios - 41 5. PAOK - 39 ----------------------- 6. PAS Giannina 35 7. Platanias 35 ROUND 28 Levadeiakos - PAS Giannina Panionios - PAOK Platanias - Xanthi ROUND 29 PAOK - Levadeiakos AEK - Panionios PAS Giannina - Platanias ROUND 30 Xanthi - PAS Giannina Platanias - PAOK Panionios - Atromitos If the playoff started today, the initial standings would be: 1. AEK 3 2. PAO 2 3. Panionios 0 4. PAOK 0

Today's meeting between Kontonis and the bif 4 was cancelled, when Marinakis informed Kontonis that he is not showing up. Once the snake heard this, he showed up for the meeting. Savvidis travelled all the way from Russia for the meeting and was pissed off that it did not take place. If I was him, I woul tell Kontonis and the other clowns to not bother him again.

BTW originally we received a 6 (3+3) point deduction, which was a result of a punishment for two separate incidents in the game. In the end EPO combined the two and gave as a 1 point credit, resulting in 5 points. What a ###### joke. PAOK needs to appeal this decision. I think in the end we will end with -3 points (I hope). Can someone remember what happened in the two games against Kalloni and Panionios in order to deserve 2 game bans? I don't remember a thing.

Here it is in detail: 1 game ban, 6,000 Euro fine for the cup game against AEL Kalloni 1 game ban, 6,000 Euro fine for the cup game against Panionios 3 game ban, 100,000 Euro fine, and -5 point deduction for the cup game against Olympiakos TOTAL: 5 game ban, 112,000 Euro fine, -5 point deduction