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It sure is. Besides Olympiakos, PAOK is the only other Greek team that brought in any substantial points to the UEFA's coefficient. Without those points, the 12th position in the UEFA standings would have disappeared much sooner. Also PAOK in European competitions has quite a good points coefficient, which means we get easier draws and thus acquire more points for the overall standings easier. That's something AEK, Panionios, Tripoli, Giannina can't do.

 

As for the 12 smaller teams, half of those teams are in Marinakis's corner, and even with PAOK, AEk and Panathinaikos joining forces, there are not enough votes to overturn the "red" majority in the Superleague.

 

I actually don't think there are a majority of clubs and owners who back OSFP. Now, there are a lot of clubs who RELY on OSFP for loan players, so that's an inducement to side with them at time, but don't confuse that with loyalty. There are undoubtedly loyal owners, but I think it's a minority, and another minority is just afraid to rock the boat. 

 

A new league would necessarily need to legislate the number of players a team is permitted to loan out to any one club, as well as the total number of player they can loan out within the top flight. Remember, over the last few seasons, teams with financial troubles like Platanias, Levadiakos, Ergotelis, Olympiakos Volou, were getting 2, 3 sometimes 4 players on loan from OSFP. Without those players they would have been serious relegation candidates. 

 

Also, with creating a new league, I would hope they would legislate minimum requirements for stadiums. No more 75-year old, 1500 seat, concrete stadiums like the ones in Kerkyra and other villages. If your stadium would not be UEFA compliant to host a UEL or UCL game, then you need to find someplace else to play.

Edited by teke817
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Also, with creating a new league, I would hope they would legislate minimum requirements for stadiums. No more 75-year old, 1500 seat, concrete stadiums like the ones in Kerkyra and other villages. If your stadium would not be UEFA compliant to host a UEL or UCL game, then you need to find someplace else to play.

That would be great, but its impossible. These teams can't afford their licenses to play[make more money]. The greek government can't afford to help them and uefa/fifa/e.u. won't help them.

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FIFA, after a complaint by EPO, gave Kontonis the Undersecretary of Sports 2 weeks to reverse his decision to cancel the Greek Cup or face disciplinary action.

 

Let's see if Kontonis has the balls to stick with his decision, or we will see a big Comaneci kolotoumba.

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No they don't.... How much would the rights to televise THAT league sell for?  

 

You would need to supply viewers with some cocktail of amphetamines to stay awake and also compensate them financially for the time wasted watching.  :D

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Two English-language articles about Oly/FIFA. Didn't think I'd ever see even this much coverage:

 

http://seriouslysoccer.com/2016/03/leave-my-son-out-of-olympiacos-match-fixing-talk-says-father-of-new-uefa-chief/ <-- about little Theodoridis

 

http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2016/03/02/matt-scott-uefa-s-oversight-on-olympiacos-has-opened-dangerous-ground/ <-- a much more interesting article about Olympiakos not being subject to reasonable scrutiny by UEFA. Goes into Marinakis' "System." I didn't watch the Anderlecht game; was it as bad as he says?

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The second link seems more credible (did not read either), but the first one seems to be a blog, and from what I can see the author does even do us the courtesy of showing his name.  <_<

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They're both just blogs. The article is quoted verbatim here - http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/03/131237/leave-my-son-out-match-fixing-talk-father-new-uefa-general-secretary

 

Note it is attributed to the AFP (the Paris-based international news agency) on both pages.

 

Also - what is there about it that is not credible? Is the son of an Olympiakos vice president not UEFA's interim general secretary? Is Marinakis not under investigation? Or do you just find Savvas' reported comments to be unreliable?

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Apostolos Giannou was just on TV speaking ahead of his potential debut after defecting from the Ethniki to the Australia's national team. They have a World Cup Qualifier this week and he was asked about the current shape of Greek football. He replied that there are some great players playing in the league but went on to say that the league is obviously corrupt.

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Call me naive, but I'm getting tired of all these allegations of corruption without any actual specifics.  Give me names, dates, recordings, bank accounts, bank account transfers, threats ... something.  Not just "it's corrupt" or articles from journalists that are pretty much hearsay.

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On Thursday, Savvidis will have a meeting with Marinakis, Melissanidis and Kontonis to discuss the future of Greek soccer. Alafouzos is boycotting the meeting. Should be interesting.

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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.

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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.

 

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I'm confused - I thought the ultimatum by FIFA was related to all levels of international competition, including the ethniki - was I wrong on that? Or is our team in the s%&#036;#&#33; house only after April 1st (and how does that effect other friendlies, like vs Australia)?

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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.

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I'm confused - I thought the ultimatum by FIFA was related to all levels of international competition, including the ethniki - was I wrong on that? Or is our team in the s%$#! house only after April 1st (and how does that effect other friendlies, like vs Australia)?

 

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.

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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. 

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What's interesting to me is the fact Olympiakos clearly has the most to lose by a Grexit. They are the only ones raking in E20+ million annually on the Champions League market pool.

 

For 9/14 teams in the SL this is the equivalent of telling a vegetarian he can't eat meat for three years. Oh no, not that! 

 

For the AEK-PAOK-PAO-Panionios/Asteras sure it's a loss of anywhere from E2-E6 million depending on how optimistic you are, which is certainly no small amount of money. 

 

However, with a completely reformed football federation, that would hopefully include a more egalitarian revenue sharing model from television, European competitions, etc., as well as more competent referees, a better organizational structure and election reforms for KED and EPO. 

 

Taking the long view, a 3 year ban may actually be a benefit to the entire league 5 years from now. So why not bite the bullet? 

 

There is one thing that CANNOT be disputed; the EPO & SL are two very poorly run organizations - without even mentioning corruption/bribery/nepotism, consider this:

 

-The last two or three years, there has been at least one team that has NOT finished the top flight competition because they were financially insolvent. How can you even get licensed to be in the top flight if you are broke before Christmas?? 

 

-We know for a fact that tax payment reporting was forged by some owners and somehow it slipped through the EPO/SL cracks. 

 

-The league has gone from 12 to 14 to 16 to 14 teams over the last several years. For a time, the SL wanted to go to 18 teams! Can you even name 18 towns in Greece that have the population to support a team? On what budget?? Where else does this happen, that we can't decide out how big our top flight should be? 

 

-The SL NEVER got a sponsor for the 2015/16 season. Think about the sheer incompetence that must entail. This is the most valuable league in the entire country. And no one wanted to put their names on the jerseys. 

 

-There have been multiple games each of the last couple of seasons suspended (or never started) because of fan violence. All games involved Olympiakos. C'mon, that's just weird. 

 

-Somehow, no international referees (those who officiate UCL-UEL-FIFA games) ever get assigned to the most important games of the year. At a minimum, that's incompetence. 

 

-Attendance has been declining for years. Although this can be a symptom of economic struggles, some teams only charge like 5 Euros for games. Most Greeks spend 5 Euros for a frappe they drink for 3 hours. So I KNOW they could spend 2 hours watching football if they were so inclined. 

 

This all adds up to one horribly managed, horribly designed, horribly thought out system. And if it requires government intervention to overhaul it completely, than I am all for it. Screw WC 2018, we all saw the Iceland game, we were not going far in that competition anyway. 

 

/endrant

Edited by teke817
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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.

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