2015 Greek football match-fixing scandal

The 2015 Greek football scandal was a sports scandal in Greece’s top professional association football league that involved numerous executives from different clubs and from Greek Football Association and referees.^[1] The scandal emerged in 2014 when prosecutor Aristidis Korreas' 173-page work was revealed.^[2] The prosecutor’s report was mainly based on telephone tappings, operated by the National Intelligence Service of Greece, that allegedly showed relations between clubs’ executives and Greek Football Association. According to that report various executives, including football players, referees, club and association executives, had formed a criminal organization in order to control the Greek football through fixing matches and blackmailing.^[2]",^[3]

The case led to the court, after the most of charges had been dropped by judicial councils, and finally on January 28, 2021 the three-member Criminal Court of Appeals acquitted unanimously all the defendants in the case.^[4]

Investigation[edit]

In the summer of 2011, the Greek football was under the storm of Koriopolis scandal, a massive match-fixing case with many officials involved. In December 2014 it came to light that the prosecutor Aristidis Korreas had pressed charges against 16 individuals including officials from football teams, the Greek football federation and referees and particularly for offenses including setting up, participating in and directing a criminal organization, fraud, attempted criminal extortion and corruption that were committed between 2011 and 2013.^[5][6] The investigation was initiated by anonymous complaints regarding the bombing of referee Kontantinea’s bakery and by an article of Kathimerini newspaper about the appointments of refereeing officials for Super League and Football League matches.^[2][7] The allegations were mainly based on Telephone tapping that had been operated by the National Intelligence Service of Greece.^[2]

According to the prosecutor’s report  the ex president of  Greek Football Federation, George Sarris, along with other members of GFD and football executives met at Hilton Hotel in order to talk about the furthercoming elections in GFD. According to that report the decisions that they came up with after their meeting were to support Sarris' candidacy for the presidency of the Greek Football Federation in the upcoming election, aiming to control it, and that Evangelos Marinakis, president of Olympiacos, would have a leading role in the organization. The prosecutor in his report concluded that Sarris, Kouridis and Stathopoulos along with their colleagues and former referees Briakos and Douros, compiled the referees' charts for the 2011–12 and 2012–13 seasons of Greek Leagues, including referees of their utmost trust, such as Ioannidis, Amparkiolis and Kampaksis, who were used in crucial games in favor of the organization's interests. Among others, they refereed the match of Apollon Smyrni F.C. against Panionios, being ordered to favor Panionios, as well as the match of Levadiakos F.C. against Panetolikos F.C., being ordered to favor Levadiakos. Levadiakos' owner Giannis Kompotis, having acquaintances among the organization's circle, regularly benefit from them. The defendants denied all charges.

In June 2015, suspects were being questioned by investigating judge Georgios Andreadis.^[8] Most of the defendants were forced to stop being involved in any football activity until the trial begins.^[9][10]

UEFA's reaction and Sporting trial[edit]

On 30 June 2015, UEFA's General secretary Gianni Infantino stated that Olympiakos will keep their spot in the Champions League for the time,^[11] such as Asteras Tripoli FC. Later, the Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed the participation of Olympiakos in the Champions League.^[12][13] On 17 June 2015, the English sports-site Inside World Football had revealed that UEFA's integrity officer for the HFF (Dimitris Davakis) didn't state to the UEFA's Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector, Miguel Liétard Fernandez-Palacios, the judicial process and the alleged involvement of Asteras Tripoli in the Greek match-fixing scandal of Koriopolis, regarding their participation in the UEFA Europa League.^[14]

According to the Telegraph, UEFA did not respond to a request to confirm whether Infantino's deputy, Theodore Theodoridis, had recused himself from any discussions or decisions about the handling of the Olympiakos case, because of the relationship of Theodoridis's father, Savvas, vice-president of Olympiakos, and Theodoridis Jnr.^[15] Due to the involvement of Olympiacos and Atromitos in Match fixing scandal, both clubs were threatened with relegation by the Hellenic Football Federation (EPO).^[16]

The defendants, including Marinakis, Sarris, Sa Pinto, Stathopoulos etc, were acquitted by the Ethics Committee for the category of match-fixing for football match between Olympiacos - Atromitos.^[17][18]

Trial[edit]

In 2017 the Judicial Council decided to put 28 individuals in trial with various charges.^[19][20] Among the defendants were Evangelos Marinakis, Georgios Sarris, Stathopoulos, Ioannis Kompotis, Georgios Spanos, Giorgos Arvanitidis, Ilias Spathas, Ioannis Papakonstantinou etc.^[21]

In 2018 the Supreme Court dropped most of the charges including the allegations of fraud, blackmail, joining and running a criminal organization and bombing were dropped and sent the case back to judicial court for further examination as regarding match – fixing allegations.^{[22][23][24][25][26]}

In 2019 the Court of Appeals Council ruled that a total of 28 people would face trial over unlawful influence of sporting event results.^[9][27] On 28 January 2021, the three-member criminal court of appeal unanimously acquitted all the defendants of match-fixing.^[28][29][30] After a thorough analysis of all the elements of the investigation, from the testimony of the witnesses (and the contradictions they encountered) and from the rejection of the pre-investigation conclusion by the lawyers of the accused, the court decided to reject all the accusations.

A case that lasted almost six years and occupied Greek football, tarnishing reputations, closed definitively.^[31]

Accusations[edit]

^[13]

See also[edit]

• Koriopolis
• 2015 FIFA corruption case

References[edit]