Marinakis to Mitsotakis and UEFA’s Čeferin: Here is Olympiakos’s comprehensive plan to deal with violence and the problems of Greek Football

Evangelos Marinakis, president of Olympiakos FC, presented today a comprehensive plan to deal not only with violence in football but also with the deeper crisis of Greek Football.

Olympiakos’s plan was presented to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin during a meeting organized by the Greek PM, to which the owners of Panathinaikos FC, PAOK FC and AEK Fc were present, along with other members of the Greek government.

Here is the full text of Olympiakos’s proposals

VIOLENCE and football

The issues of violence and criminal behaviour in football are clearly a social phenomenon.

• While there is a harsh punitive framework for teams (clubs), which pay millions of euros in fines, offenders are not caught and thus face no sanctions.
• It’s the State’s responsibility to check if the person entering the stadium is armed, not the Clubs’. To date, there is not even the slightest control, especially in the stands of the Ultras.
• It is also the State’s duty and responsibility to enforce the law and stop the gangs that prey on football, as well as the the delinquents who have no business being in our stadiums.
• An important reason why there is violence in the stadiums is the feeling that there is organized injustice by the football institutions. Therefore, radical changes have to be made if we want to move forward.
• You have to understand that even this year’s Championship, which starts in a few days, begins in the shadow of the Betting Scandal that has broken out and the Interpol investigation that will hopefully go all the way and the people involved, and found guilty, will pay!

WE SUGGEST THE FOLLOWING

1) The establishment of a Special Unit for dealing with violence in sports.

2) Strengthening of the law and life ban from sports venues for those convicted of violence in a sports venue.

3) A Framework of controls in the stadiums by the Hellenic Police. So that thousands of fans will not enter the stadiums without any control.

Non-implementation of the Holistic Study (HS) by the HFF

 The Holistic Study for Greek football was an attempt for the HFF to be modernized and to operate on a legitimate basis. However, the Holistic Study was never essentially implemented.

• There are no regulations for the HFF Committees! The meetings (time of holding) and the agenda of the Committees are scheduled without authorization and without preparation for their members, obviously with malicious intent. There are cases where Regulations of hundreds of pages are sent for preparation to the Committee members a few hours prior to the Committee’s meeting.
• The HFF Professional Football Committee is envisaged by the Holistic Study to be the committee that will be responsible on all matters concerning Greek professional football. However, as constituted by the HFF, the representatives of professional football are defined as… a minority in this committee and, therefore, amateur football decides on all issues of professional football.
• No institutional reorganization has taken place. Instead, a CEO was appointed without any international competition, along with an appointed President who, either watches like a puppet or is scheming.
• No plan was prepared for the National Team and its training centre, although clearly provided for by the Holistic Study. Instead, the HFF ExCo Members opaquely designate the AEK stadium as the home of the national team, and the AEK training center as the training center for hire with consideration.
• At the same time, according to the Press, the HFF has received two proposals for the creation of the training center, which will be financed by FIFA/UEFA. One from Lamda Development, which concerns building the training center in the area of Ellhnikon, in the most modern and large park in Europe with a cost close to 20.000.000 and delivery within 2024; but the HFF roots for the second proposal, which is to create the training center in the area of Markopoulo, next to the Track Races, where the HFF will pay 28 million and estimated time of delivery after many years. And all this because it is a property of particular interests!
• The HFF electorate body continues to be a small number of people with absolute dependence. In 2023, it is unacceptable that so few people vote in the Elections of the HFF.

We suggest the following:

1) A President of common acceptance for the HFF and a team of experts from UEFA and FIFA who will implement the Holistic Study consistently and with the existence of operating regulations for all relevant Committees. Reorganization at the level of Disciplinary Bodies, National Teams, HFF Services.

2) All clubs that are legal and included in the National Registry shall have the right to vote in the Federation Elections.

3) Immediate change of the composition of the Professional Football Committee so that Professional Football has a majority on the Committee.

PROFESIONAL REFEREEING IN SL1+foreign referees in Greek Football

• As you know, a State law already provides for the operation of professional Refereeing in Greek football. We have already proposed to the HFF the establishment of the GRO (Greek Referee Organization) in which the HFF will be a 20% shareholder, but the HFF does not want Professional Football to run the refereeing. For what reason? This will save money and no one will accuse it of corruption.
• Some people think that some Clubs have a problem with the presence of Mr. Clattenburg, who FIFA/UEFA had proposed for the «Greek Problem» as Chairman to the CRC. I don’t care if it is this particular man. Let them give us someone else. It will be even better if we don’t know who. But things will be done professionally and without the involvement of local Associations who will act as the agent of each referee.
• I also notice that the HFF is showing great interest in stopping foreign referees coming to the big games. If this is done, the levels of controversy will skyrocket again. UEFA’s commitment to the presence of foreign referees at matches in Greek competitions should come out of this meeting again. If foreign referees stop coming to Greece, then today’s meeting, called in response to the recent incidents of violence, should be held every week.

We suggest the following:

1) Immediate implementation of the Super League’s decision to operate the GRO with the participation of the HFF. There is already an established plan and a year’s preparation by the Super League.

2) Foreign referees and VAR referees in all the derbies of the Greek League, who will be selected by FIFA and UEFA officials in direct discussions with their Federations and without the involvement of HFF. The criterion must be that these referees (and their team’s VAR referees) must be from the Elite referee list or the A-League or referees who referee in the A-League of the top ten Leagues based on UEFA’s ranking. UEFA has to realize that when it comes to Refereeing, the HFF is the biggest part of the problem, and cannot be part of the solution.