Shame on you, EPO
AGONAsport’s Olympiacos contributor, Theo Bouras, takes a look at the Hellenic Football Federation’s (EPO) failure to successfully organise the final of the Greek Cup.
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You’d think when you only have one game to organize every season – the Greek Cup Final – you’d be able to get it right. Well, not if you’re the EPO. Instead of announcing a neutral venue for the Cup Final early on in the season, the EPO procrastinated and consequently created a plethora of problems.
The Instigators
Since taking office in 2017, EPO President Evangelos Grammenos has continuously used underhanded tricks to create problems for Olympiacos. Grammenos, who PAOK owner Ivan Savvidis once claimed “is our man”, has been less than transparent while governing Greek football. He has managed to send the national team on a downward spiral while destroying the Super League at the same time.
While normal governing bodies take pride in properly organizing a championship final with all the details (date, venue, e.t.c.), the EPO once again showed its incompetency by announcing the Georgios Kamaras Stadium (better known to fans as simply Rizoupoli, the neighborhood in which it is situated) as the site for this year’s Greek Cup Final. Rizoupoli, which is only used by Apollon Smyrnis in the second division, is far from being a state-of-the-art stadium. The pitch hasn’t been used since mid-March and it has been poorly maintained. The locker room area is antiquated and the police is unable to ensure that both teams will be safe from potential fan violence.
The fact that this stadium is only a few minutes away from Nea Filadelfeia (a hotbed of AEK supporters) further confirms the EPO’s worst-kept secret; they want to stick it to Olympiacos any way they possibly can. Meanwhile, other stadiums like OAKA, Kleanthis Vikelidis, Peristeri, Theodoros Vardinogiannis and Nea Smyrni were all better equipped to host a championship game of this magnitude but were denied the honours.
The Road Ahead
I read a lot of people blaming Olympiacos for this fiasco, claiming that the Erythrolefki should simply play the Cup final wherever the EPO decides. The issue with that is that once again, the Federation has shown disrespect to the only representative of Greece in European football. On August 6th, the Legend will head to England to play the second leg of the UEFA Europa League Round of 16. Pedro Martins and the administration’s priority is to make sure the team arrives for that clash against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the best physical condition. That means they don’t need to risk injury playing on a run-down pitch like Rizoupoli’s.
The EPO had enough time to find another location and was able to schedule the game up until July 29th, but instead decided to postpone it to August 30th at OAKA Spyros Louis! This means that Olympiacos will not have played a single competitive minute of football in 17 days between their 3-0 victory over AEK on July 19th and the Europa League game! Another attempt by the EPO to hurt the only team representing the Greek flag worldwide.
The damage does not only end there. Should Olympiacos go through on August 6th at Molineux Stadium, they would have to travel to Germany to play a quarter-final game just four days later. The semi-final would be on August 16th while the final would take place on August 21st.
Keep in mind that at this point, the 2020/2021 season would technically begin with potential arrivals and departures which would challenge the team’s chemistry. The infamous Cup Final will take place on August 30th, the Super League should start on September 12th and Olympiacos’ Champions League qualifiers are scheduled to begin on September 15th.
The way things have turned out, if you take away the coronavirus break, Olympiacos would not have had any proper rest from the span of July 2019 until June 2021! The EPO could have valued the country’s best interests, but instead, it continues to push its agenda. Should all things go as planned, there will be an election on October 9th for a new EPO administration – and it can’t come soon enough.
