It’s not enough to have eurozone partners give you the “cold shoulder” on an increasingly urgent need for bailout financing and the US administration livid over a plan that may allow a terrorist to leave his prison cell, now the leftist Greek government risks the exclusion of domestic clubs and the national team from FIFA and UEFA competitions.

The reason is a draft bill proposed by the deputy minister of sport that the international football federations consider as interfering in the autonomy of the Hellenic Football Federation (EP), the governing body for football (soccer) in the east Mediterranean country.
Jerome Valcke and Gianni Infantino, the general secretaries of FIFA and UEFA respectively, warned as much on Wednesday.

According to the government’s “spin”, the draft bill aims to combat corruption and hooliganism in all sports competitions in the country.

FIFA and UEFA have warned Greece that the country’s national team and domestic clubs run the risk of being excluded from international competition, if the legislative bill proposed by the Deputy Minister of Sport, Stavros Kontonis, is passed.

The primary objections are on provisions giving state authorities the right to ban Greek clubs from international competitions, forcing teams to implement e-tickets, suspension of matches suspected of bet-fixing, the appointment of a special prosecutor for football and tax bureau audits for referees.
Football’s governing bodies did however agree on the government’s initiative to tackle violence and allowing the Sport Minister to impose fines on clubs whose fans were responsible for any trouble.

In Athens, relevant deputy minister Stavros Kontonis said that despite disagreements with FIFA and UEFA the SYRIZA government will proceed with getting the bill passed in order to conduct audits and achieve a supervisory role in all in Greece.

“Where public money is involved no one can be excluded from control. We want self rule, but all sports federations will be monitored and managed in a uniform manner, with no exceptions.”