By Andrew Warshaw
May 7 – The crisis in Greek football that led to a threat by UEFA and FIFA to throw them out appears to have been resolved after the country’s controversial new sports law, designed to crack down on fan violence, was submitted to parliament with the requisite adjustments.
UEFA have held two weeks of talks with Greek officials led by deputy sports minister Stavros Kontonis (pictured), in a bid to avoid a ban over government interference in the federation’s business and Kontonis told parliament on Wednesday: “We have made a serious effort in order to avoid Greek teams being excluded from international competitions, with our national team always top of our mind.
“National teams are not clubs belonging to the federation, they are teams which belong to the Greek people and give joy when they are successful.
“The situation in Greek football and sports in general is out of control and this bill represents a large step towards tackling the problems.”
Last week UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino reiterated that his organisation would not hesitate to carry out its threat to suspend Greece from its competitions if there were no concrete moves, by the end of this week, to stop government interference.
The amended text for the bill was finalised late on Tuesday, seemingly with FIFA’s and UEFA’s blessing, and Kontonis added: “We are proud of the result (of the amended law), which we believe serves the best of both the legitimacy and the need for reform in Greek football.”
Greek football officials were warned by a joint FIFA-UEFA statement last month that they could face a suspension over government interference if the sports law was implemented in its initial form.
They initially responded somewhat aggressively but were quick to realise they had to fall into line.
“Our discussions have been in a spirit of mutual understanding, sincerity and good faith, and they have been completed in the best way despite the continuous efforts of many to torpedo it,” said Kontonis without naming names.
Following meetings in Athens and UEFA headquarters in Switzerland, a compromise was reached over the wording of the new law, drawn up to counter crowd trouble in stadiums which has already caused the suspension of Greek domestic matches three times alone this season.
Despite the threat of suspension being lifted, more importantly Greek football continues to suffer from a deepening and often brutal match-fixing scandal, graphically illustrated in Insideworldfootball’s recent special report which revealed shocking findings of mafia-style intimidation. (see http://bit.ly/1GTEUe9 and http://bit.ly/1Ij01Hc)
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