Greek Olympic Committee Prez. Kapralos says Olympic team could be banned from Rio 2016

The possibility is remote, he admits

President of the Greek Olympic Committee Spyros Kapralos did not rule out the possibility of the Greek Olympic team being banned from taking part in the 2016 Rio Games, in an interview to sports radio ‘Sport FM 94.6″, Wednesday. Kapralos explained the current impasse between the Greek football authorities and the sport’s international and European governing bodies of FIFA and UEFA, respectively could detrimentally affect the Olympic team’s chances of going to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, although he did recognise such an outcome was a fairly remote one. He said the Olympic Football team of Greece would immediately be affected, if the Greek authorities were unable to reach a compromise with FIFA and UEFA. The two football bodies have threatened to disqualify all Greek football clubs, including the national teams at all age levels from their competitions, if the Greek government does not resume the country’s Cup tournament. Deputy Sports Minister of Greece, Stavros Kontonis had suspended the Greek Cup after a spate of violent outbreaks of fans, following the match between PAOK and Olympiakos. Greek football has been mired in scandals and corruption for a large part of the past decade and even before that, with big football clubs vying for control of the country’s Football Federation, which controls referees.