cyberfish Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Ten Cate has huge responsibility for using the first part of the season to experiment. It's partly his fault for not using preseason to figure things out, bet we can also blame partly the fact that we had to plunge into CL qualifiers, and partly management for implying that it's ok to treat this season as practice because we are aiming for the second year to see results. It's also partly the players' fault for squandering some games they should have been dominating. It's obvious that Ten Cate had overestimated his squad and after the slaps from AEK, Anorthosi, Ergoteli, Irakli, and Astera he got scared and he's been very apprehensive. Remember in the beginning of the season that he was fielding these ultra-attacking formations only to watch little guys like Koutsianikoulis and Pliatsikas look like little Maradonas. On the other topic that Athinaios mentioned how it's a big business, yes, these horrible EPO/Courts/Referee decisions are having a huge impact on people's lives. I don't think there is a single person in Greece who is not cynical about how football operates, and I bet there are very few who still believe that the games are only played on the pitch. The sport has been bleeding fans for at least two decades because of the cloud it has over match fixing and pre-determined titles. Last year AEK won the title. But in the circus we call SuperLeague they ended up third and out of Champions League. Two or three years ago (can't remember) a referee decision against them (at PAO) cost them another CL appearance. AEK would not be going through such hardship if the game was played on the pitch. They would have gotten enough money from Europe to be breathing easier. Really, the only way to win titles is by controlling the "paraskinio". There is a little hope. Gagatsis is already gone, and I think we'll see more dramatic changes in the next few months. I would predict the shake-up of the entire refereeing structure. Maybe EPO will begin working more to protect the integrity of the league, and less to support their favorite teams and to mismanage the millions of Euro that comes their way. BTW, do you know why Gagatsis called it quits? Does it have anything to do with mismanaged and possibly appropriated money? Have you noticed how quiet the media is on the matter? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clover22 Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I noticed and I'm surprised more people haven't been talking about it, in this forum and elsewhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.