Here is an interesting development described in this article from the Ekathimerini: the Greek Soccer Federation (EPO) is essentially being taken over by the FIFA. Reasons given are:
"The FIFA Council was briefed on the different issues faced by the Greek federation in recent months, such as the tense relationships with the authorities, due partly to discrepancies between national laws and the independence of the federation, the resignation of the president and other members of the federation's executive committee due to judicial procedures, the allegations linked to refereeing, as well as the difficulties surrounding the management of ethics cases."
And the reaction from the Greek government? Unacceptable colonialist behavior on the part of FIFA? Illegal intervention in national sovereignty? Greece being made a soccer colony by foreigners?
Not at all! Greece's Deputy Sports Minister Stavros Kontonis welcomed the move as "a positive development which will be combined with the placement of worthy people to manage a problem that has plagued Greek sports for years".
Well, if it works for the soccer federation, would it perhaps work elsewhere as well?
"The FIFA Council was briefed on the different issues faced by the Greek federation in recent months, such as the tense relationships with the authorities, due partly to discrepancies between national laws and the independence of the federation, the resignation of the president and other members of the federation's executive committee due to judicial procedures, the allegations linked to refereeing, as well as the difficulties surrounding the management of ethics cases."
And the reaction from the Greek government? Unacceptable colonialist behavior on the part of FIFA? Illegal intervention in national sovereignty? Greece being made a soccer colony by foreigners?
Not at all! Greece's Deputy Sports Minister Stavros Kontonis welcomed the move as "a positive development which will be combined with the placement of worthy people to manage a problem that has plagued Greek sports for years".
Well, if it works for the soccer federation, would it perhaps work elsewhere as well?
The Greek Football Federation or EPO matters very little and no one cares of who controls it because it makes absolutely no difference who does.
ReplyDeleteThe issue that matters with Greek football is that the teams have no revenue (due to the crisis and fans avoiding going to live games) and as a result the only source for revenue for them is UEFA sponsored competitions.
To increase the propensity for EUFA revenue inflows all teams have replaced all their rosters with ready made foreign born players and almost no club can afford to develop young Greek players and Greek talent.
So you have teams like Olympiakos or Panathinaikos which are basically clubs of foreign players with perhaps 1 or 2 key Greek players.
As a result the National Football team sucks (and you will have solid evidence of this when they play Bosnia in November and lose decisively and then they will be steam rolled by Belgium in early March).
So the take over by foreigners of Greek football is a very serious issue but EPO (or the Greek Federation of Football) is a totally insignificant issue from which no parallels or conclusions could be drawn. EPO lost the best coach Greece had - Fernando Santos who by the way won the European Championship last summer- because they are petty, can't pay wages which could attract top talent and they are very corrupt. Santos is the only coach who lead Greece to the final 16 of the world cup and lost on penalties @ a 0-0 game which Greece could have easily won. EPO was so cheap that it would not pay him his ticket to return back from Brazil and of course a great coach like Fernando Santos with intimate knowledge of coaching Greek teams like AEK and PAOK as well as the National Football team was lost for ever and had to move on (which he did and then proved EPO the fools that they were).
When Fernando Santos spoke about Greece, tears came to his eyes; he loved the country and its people that much.
You can replace EPO with the Turkish Football Federation for all I care; they are that disgusting and uber bad.
It does not work for the soccer federation. To ask FIFA to clean up EPO is pretty much like authorizing the Mafia to bring law and order to the Camorra, they will try to take over their turf. The latest episode of the turf war is the torching of the house of Giorgos Bikas, the head of the Central Refereeing Committee. Due to their difference in structure, the Camorra is bound to win.
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