Greek corruption: Club chiefs beg UEFA for help to break football 'mafia'

Some of the most senior figures in Greek club football have begged UEFA and FIFA to assist the Syriza government in tackling the institutional corruption that is defiling the Super League. 

The courts have launched an investigation into an alleged "criminal organisation" at the heart of Greek football, with more than a dozen Hellenic Football Federation staff and officials, referees and club owners potentially facing charges over their alleged involvement.

The scandal has moved the sports minister to introduce legislation before parliament aimed at reforming the HFF and the way it oversees the game in Greece. However, that has prompted UEFA, in a letter countersigned by FIFA, to warn that if the measures are passed it will press ahead with the expulsion of all Greek club and national teams from international football over governmental interference in football administration.

But those who are not implicated in the inquiry are desperate for third-party assistance to clean up the Greek game. "The government is right," Yiannis Alafouzos, the president of the 20-times Greek champions Panathinaikos, told to the media

"It's serious criminal activity we are talking about and a lot of specific details are becoming public. The government is right to be saying enough is enough about this and that they want to introduce legislation to penalise the individuals who are guilty of corruption.

"The government is saying we have to intervene because [the HFF] are doing nothing. UEFA is also right to say you have to have autonomy of sport and that you can't interfere. But UEFA and the government both want clean football and what we have is corruption."

Alafouzos's view was echoed by Evangelos Aslanidis, the chief executive of 11-times title winner AEK Athens. "UEFA and FIFA don't want these problems in Greece," he told Insideworldfootball. "Many people say that it's like a Mafia. You need blood ties to succeed in football here.

"We have to give UEFA and FIFA the correct point of view: that it's in their interest to break it. It's degraded the whole product. People are staying at home. We want to regain these people, to make the product more honest and more attractive so we can sell it better. This is our objective."

Stamatis Vellis had been president and principal shareholder of Apollon Smyrni until his club's relegation in controversial circumstances last season drove him out of football. "It got to the point of making absolutely no sense to continue to plough money into the team when the game is not played on field," Vellis told Insideworldfootball. "That was not a sport any more.

"[To clean the game up] you first need the support of UEFA, which is not supporting anything. They are doing absolutely nothing, although they are very well aware of the extent of corruption in Greek football. Currently, almost the entire Board of the Greek Football Federation is accused of Criminal Acts by the State! On the contrary, they currently seem to be actually opposing the new Greek sports minister who is trying to change some of the laws governing Greek football.

"Of course he is opposed by most of the teams playing in Europe but also by those in the Federation he is trying to root out of the whole system. UEFA should be saying, 'Let's not consider these changes as laws passed by the state but consider the merits of what these people are asking for and help them do it.'

"But they seem to be taking the opposite stance. Immediately they wrote a letter to the minister saying you will be knocked out of the European championships, including the national team. So this has divided the Greeks now into two: people who say at no cost should we stay out of the European championships and those who say if that is the cost we should pay to clean our football, we should do it because nobody is enjoying the sport in this country any more.

"UEFA's stance is very surprising to me. It makes me believe that they don't really care about the heart of football, but they only really care about the publicity, the money they create and the end product. Whether that product is a bit corrupted, as long as it doesn't show and as long as it sells on the shelves, they're happy. That is my view of their reaction because this has been going on for years. They know it's been going on and they don't lift a finger."