The owners of Olympiakos, Evangelos Marinakis, Panathinaikos, Yiannis Alafouzos, AEK, Dimitris Melissanidis, and Artur Davidian, the representative of the owner of PAOK, Ivan Savvidis, who participate in a meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin entered Maximos Palace shortly after 11 am.
From the government’s side, the Minister of State Stavros Papastavrou, the Minister of Citizen Protection Yiannis Oikonomou and the Deputy Minister of Sports Yiannis Vroutsis participated in the meeting.
The Greek Prime Minister and the president of the European football federation had earlier a private meeting which lasted about half an hour, while in the dialogue they had in front of the cameras they referred to today’s Super Cup final between Sevilla and Manchester City that will be held in “Georgios Karaiskakis” Stadium.
It is noted that the meeting is taking place in the shadow of the murder of Michalis Katsouris by fans of Dinamo Zagreb and while the Greek football championship is expected to start next weekend.
The goal of today’s meeting
The government’s systematic involvement at the highest level with what is happening in Greek football is not new. At the beginning of 2020, PM Mitsotakis put Greek football under full guardianship, while the role of intermediary with the international football federations was assumed by the then Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis. In fact, at the end of that February, Mr. Ceferin had come to Athens and had signed an agreement for Greek football, without, however, any spectacular results.
According to information, the main objective is to create a climate of calm and tranquility to start the championship without drama, which is apparently what UEFA also seeks. Whether there can be institutional interventions in the internal functioning of Greek football, at the same time, is a second debate, while Mr. Ceferin will also see EPO president Takis Baltakos in the afternoon, who did not participate in the morning meeting at Maximos Palace.
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