Details concerning Olympiacos’ possibile relegation punishment
More details concerning the match-fixing case involving Olympiacos and Atromitos have come to light.
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On Friday, the Ethics Committee of the Hellenic Football Federation dropped a bombshell on the Greek game, revealing that it has gathered enough evidence after six months of investigations to accuse Olympiacos and Atromitos of fixing a match against each other in 2015 (2-1). The committee recommended for the two teams to be relegated and for their respective owners to receive a lifetime ban from the sport.
It must be emphasised that these are currently only recommendations instead of punishments.
Sport FM journalist, Aris Asvestas, recently presented more details of the case:
ALL MATCHES WHICH WERE SUPPOSEDLY FIXED
Ergotelis - Kalloni (19/01/2015)
Veria - Olympiacos (01/02/2015)
Veria - OFI (17/01/2015)
OFI - Panathinaikos (15/02/2015)
Asteras Tripolis - Olympiacos (01/11/2014)
Olympiacos - Atromitos (04/02/2015)
The Ethics Committee discovered that Marinakis was involved in the rigging of all of the six matches in question in collaboration with four referees and seven EPO and Refereeing Department members.
PUNISHMENTS TO BE ISSUED IF PARTIES FOUND GUILTY
Olympiacos: Relegation, fine of three million euros
Atromitos: Relegation, fine of three million euros
Evangelos Marinakis: Lifetime ban from footballing activities and stadiums, fine of 300,000 euros
Giorgos Spanos: Lifetime ban from footballing activities and stadiums, fine of 200,000 euros
Giorgos Sarris, Aristeidis Stathopoulos, Giannis Papakonstantinou, Nikos Prountzos, Theodoros Kouridis, Giorgos Douros, Thanasis Briakos, Konstantinos Ioannidis: Lifetime ban from footballing activities and stadiums, fine of 90,000 euros
Giannis Angelopoulos, Ilias Spathas, Alexandros Dimitropoulos, Apostolos Amparkiolis: 10-year ban from footballing activities and stadiums, fine of 60,000 euros
Ricardo Sa Pinto: 10-year ban from footballing activities and stadiums, fine of 20,000 euros
NEXT STEPS
In accordance with the EPO Code of Conduct, the president of the Judicial Department will now examine the findings presented to him, before he decides whether there is sufficient evidence to press legal charges against the parties. It is possible that he will request for more evidence from the investigators before he takes the matter further.
The court case will be held on the basis of the findings. There is no specified time frame for the duration of the investigation.
POSSIBILITY OF GOVERNMENT ABOLISHING RELEGATION PUNISHMENT AGAIN
Earlier in the year, the state opted to abolish the relegation punishment for multi-ownership as to protect PAOK’s and Xanthi’s top-flight status, but history won’t repeat itself this time. Taking into account that Olympiacos’ and Atromitos’ actions directly violate the EPO’s Code of Conduct, only the footballing governing body can hand out punishments for the offence, consequently meaning that the government is unlikely to get involved.
