Only two days before Greece’s national elections, the Greek government under PM Alexis Tsipras approved a large sum of money to three popular football clubs via state broadcaster ERT in the form of TV rights.

“The green light” was given during a special meeting at Maximos Hall in the presence of PM Alexis Tsipras, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, Digital Policy Minister Nikos Pappas, Culture Minister Myrsini Zorba and ERT CEO Yannis Drosos.

The money was approved by the management of state broadcaster ERT for champions PAOK (€ 10.5 million), AEK (€ 10.5 million) and OFI (€ 2.5 million).
ERT’s proposal to PAOK involved € 10.5 million a year for the TV rights of its home games over the next three years, while a similar sum will be paid to AEK Athens.

The decision is highly questionable as it happened just before the elections and is targeted at PAOK Thessaloniki, where SYRIZA was trounced in the recent EU elections due to the Prespes Agreement.