Paotrella

That is an interesting point and your right, that is the big difference between this situation and the Turkish banning of Fenerbahce. In this instance if we were solely relying on EPO, the issue would not even be a discussion point. Everyone would continue on very free. EPO is equally as corrupt and the charges against Sarris confirm that. What gives me comfort here is the government action against both EPO individuals and Marinakis. Why is the government all of a sudden keen to lock these guys up? I have said it before and I'll say it again, Marinakis and co. have seriously pissed people off and now they will face fallout. Is someone helping the government with these actions? Are these actions motivated by people wanting to clean up Greek football? Or do they seek payback for other matters?

^^^ Interesting that SDNA has reported the UEFA visit yet the other websites are reporting that all is ok for Oly!

So........ .... where a president of a football club is found guilty of bribing matches (Veria v Oly), of blackmailing referees (and burn their shops down), of directly interfering with another team's starting 11 (Sa Pinto at Atromitos) that this wont implicate Olympiakos??? Dont forget that Sa Pinto will have his day in court as well, along with the Veria crowd. Stay tuned. C'mon mate. Lets not kid ourselves. Just because Vaggela and his mates think they are the biggest manges and are straight from the set of the Sopranos, doesnt mean that UEFA will see it that way too. I know Greece is a bourdelo when it comes to pursuing high profile criminals but then again, who thought that Marinakis would be BANNED FROM BEING INVOLVED IN FOOTBALL? All of Europe is talking about this, did you see the headlines across European sports websites (including Eurosport)? Would UEFA allow such publicity for one of their CL participants, especially when they were recently publicly so strong about FIFA corruption? UEFA has to now act on their words. The FIFA corruption scandal is an indirect blessing.

Nothing has changed. Lets consider the facts: 1. Irrespective of the situation, whether they were in the CL or B Ethniki, they need to hire a coach. Marco Silva is not a big name coach I imagine does not command top dollar after being sacked by Sporting Lisbon. 2. They need metagrafes irrespective of Europe or not. If Berbatov comes, so what? We signed Essien without the guarantee of CL income, they could easily do the same. 3. I imagine they are in a strong financial position after a decade of CL football and recent player sales of 30m+. I am sure they can ride out a year or 2 of no European football and be prepared for their return.

I am no expert on Greek criminal law, however I regard this as a preliminary hearing to decide on interim measures before proceeding to a full court hearing. Today's proceedings clearly indicate that there is a case against the accused. Rest assured that a guilty verdict (like Beos and Psomiadis a few years ago) will result in some serious consequences.

UEFA doesnt need to be formally approached by anyone. Rest assured they are closely monitoring this case. For those who are unclear how this may unfold, I provide an extract of a legal blog summarising what happened to Fenerbahce in 2011/12. Note some of the similarities. The 2011 Turkish match-fixing series in brief In the summer of 2011, following Turkish?s police investigation into 19 football matches suspected of being fixed, 61 individuals were arrested, including club managers and Turkish national players. Fenerbah?e, Besiktas and Eski?ehirspor were connected with match-fixing allegations in domestic tournaments in 2011. Istanbul giant Fenerbah?e was at the epicentre of this match-fixing scandal, with its Chairman, Aziz Yildirim, being convicted by Istanbul?s 16th High Criminal Court of establishing and leading a criminal organisation, which rigged four games and offered payments to players or rival clubs to fix three others. Particularly, among other matches, it was found that under the leadership of the then President of Fenerbah?e, match-fixing agreements were made for the matches of Eski?ehirspor against Fenerbah?e and Eski?ehirspor against Trabzonspor dating from 9 April 2011 and 22 April 2011 respectively. The Eski?ehirspor head coach and the player were found guilty for match-fixing in the match with Trabzonspor and were sentenced to imprisonment. Furthermore, the High Criminal Court convicted Besiktas? Officials of match-fixing activities with regard to the Final Cup played between Besiktas and Istanbul BB on 11 May 2011. As a result of this alleged match-fixing involvement Fenerbah?e was banned by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) from participating in the 2011-2012 CL. Later on, the 25 July 2013, Fenerbah?e was found ineligible by the UEFA Appeals Body (UAB) to participate in the next two UEFA club competitions including the 2013/14 UEFA CL, since it could not comply with the UEFA Champions League (UEL) admission requirements. Similarly, Besiktas and Eski?ehirspor, in 2013 and 2014 respectively, were considered by the UAB ineligible to participate in the next UEL season, on the grounds of a breach of the UEL admission criteria and particularly of Article 2.08. A next round of proceedings was brought before the CAS. On 28 and 30 August 2013, the CAS rejected Fenerbah?e?s and Besictas? appeals.[4] One year later, on 2 September 2014, Eski?ehirspor faced the same fate. Interestingly enough, the Eski?ehirspor panel was the first CAS panel to deal with the sanction of a club victim of a match-fixing arrangement. The outcome of the Turkish cases is not necessarily surprising. The CAS practice has been consistently embracing the UEFA zero tolerance policy against match-fixing. http://www.asser.nl/SportsLaw/Blog/post/the-cas-jurisprudence-on-match-fixing-in-football-what-can-we-learn-from-the-turkish-cases-part-1-by-thalia-diathesopoulou

Correct. He can keep his shares however cant be involved in the decision making or operations. The question here is when does UEFA start getting involved.

Correction to earlier report, he has to report to the local police station every 15 days. He is free to travel overseas though, unlike Sarris.

Decision is through..... 200,000 bond to be paid. He has to report once a month to the local police station. Banned from direct involvement in football. The beginning of the end.

Latest court update:

Marinakis has been going non stop now for 5 hours, obviously plenty to talk about! I imagine there would be plenty of evidence to go through as well. Meanwhile Oly fans have assembled outside the court to show their support. The sheep have risen!

Vaggelis Marinakis is not impressed

More importantly, how did Karelis, Ninis go with the Ethniki?

Their day is coming, mark my words. Too many people involved now, too many people with their own agenda against Marinakis. When you lose an entire shipment of heroin to the police, heads roll. When you cost people millions in lost earnings, expect some fallout.

^^^ The general public cant get access to Gate 13. If you wish to be part of it, try to connect with a fan club who will have access. If you do get access, brush up on the chants pretty quick. Either way, you will love the experience.

Thought I would open this topic to share our own photos and videos from PAO match days. I was fortunate enough to be at Leoforos last year for the PAO v Dinamo Moscow match and enjoyed every second before, during and after the match. The train trip on the Metro to the ground, drinks with Gate 13, the atmosphere at the ground were all a great experience. The below youtube videos have been created to share my experience. Hope you all enjoy.

Not at all happy that Tavlaridis and Ninis have been called up. Tavlaridis at 35 has not future in the ethniki, why the hell is he getting a run then? I will be majorly pissed if he gets injured. As for Karelis, if his value gets boosted via the Ethniki then all good for PAO. I would happily accept a 8m transfer fee.

Essien, you have my full support from the moment you wear our green jersey. Good luck. I can start dreaming again of those magical European nights we use to thrive on.