By Mark Baber
December 3 – FIFA and UEFA have reportedly sent a joint letter to the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) warning that proposed government legislation, which is aimed at tackling the serious problem of corruption and match-fixing in Greek football, constitutes an unacceptable involvement of the state in football and would lead to the country being banned from international competitions.
The news of FIFA’s warning was passed to the Efe press service by a source within the EPO, although the full text of the letter has not been revealed.
The letter comes as the crisis over corruption and match fixing in Greece football comes to a head with the EPO, whose officials have been accused of involvement in match fixing, opposed to new legislation which would restrict the president of the EPO to two terms and introduce regulatory reforms aimed at protecting the safety and independence of referees.
Unsurprisingly it is the EPO which brought the matter to UEFA and FIFA’s attention.
The degree to which Greek referees have been subjected to threats and inducements to fix matches has become increasingly clear, such that respected Scottish official Hugh Dallas was brought in as the head referee of the Greek Super League to try and bring order to the situation.
A long running judicial probe reached the stage of demanding depositions from 11 key soccer figures – four from the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO), two from EPO’s Central Refereeing Committee (KED), two Super League club chairmen and three top-flight referees suspected of corruption when the lead prosecutor, Aristidis Koreas was inexplicably replaced in October.
Dallas resigned from his responsibilities for referee’s appointments in November after the brutal beating of Christoforos Zografos, the assistant director of Greece’s central refereeing committee, by two men with iron bars in Athens. Evangelos Marinakis, the president of Olympiakos, himself under investigation for match fixing and the use of violence (which he denies), accused the owner of AEK, Dimitris Melissanidis, of ordering the assault (denied by Melissanidis).
With Greek football in desperate need of a clean-up, which will include criminal proceedings, FIFA has the task of defending the independence of football from politics whilst also ensuring effective anti-match fixing and anti-corruption measures are put in place.
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