By Panos Bletsos
November 6 – The Hellenic Football Federation looks to be in serious trouble as more than 40 state officials, including prosecutors and financial crime investigators, raided the EPO headquarters unannounced on Monday in search of evidence of financial irregularities.
The governing body of the national game faces a number of accusations, including the falsification of insurance and tax clearance certificates in 22 different cases, the embezzlement of €28 million supposed to be invested in player insurance policies, the forgery of several player transfer documents between 2003 and 2011, as well as allegations of fixing the charts of Super League officials and vote rigging in local football union elections in Drama, Corinth and Rhodes.
The raid was headed by high ranking public officials, deputy prosecutors Haralambos Mastarantonakis and Yorgos Stefanatos, as well as Haris Lakafosis and Aristidis Koreas representing the legal service of the General Secretariat of Sports (GGA).
Some 40 investigators of SDOE, Greece’s Economic Police, and 15 law enforcement officers took part in the raid on the EPO offices situated in the metropolitan park of Goudi. The search lasted more than seven hours and the Federation’s main computer server was seized.
EPO has yet to comment on the matter officially. Off the record, EPO president Yorgos Sarris appears “not worried”, but has allegedly informed UEFA supremo Michel Platini on “yet another government intervention in national association matters”.
The case of falsified insurance and tax clearance certificates came to light in the summer of 2011, after Kallithea filed an official complaint against two other lower league Athens rivals, Ethnikos Pirea and Ionikos Nikeas.
It quickly evolved into a major scandal involving more than 20 football clubs, a number of which were relegated following court judgements against them. Sarris’ predecessor Sofoklis Pilavios helped the subsequent investigation by submitting evidence to the authorities while the current administration has not tried to hide the matter under the carpet either. However it remains unclear how long the investigation will take.
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