Referee crimes in Greek Football with the help of VAR

His name is Tasos Donis. He is player with the national Greek team and Reims Football club. And he has the privilege to have a view from afar in regards to the ‘wonderful’ world of Greek football.

With the necessary calm and the ease that comes from the fact that he has no relation to Greek Football.

Without the fear of ‘disciplinary organs’ whose sole function is to persecute whoever denounces something about Greek Football, and never deal with the contents of these complaints or those that are responsible for any wrongdoing.

Tasos Donis after the end of the 9th day of the Greek Super League shared an important text in his social media account.

Every word of it and every letter is important.

‘They are taking advantage of your pain and you sweat. Disgusting Greek Football you only remind of misery’.

Later, his brother, Christos Donis, a player with Panathinaikos FC, added: ‘No one respects anytinhg. It was a robbery’. The referred to the PAOK-Panathinaikos game in Toumpa Stadium, Thessaloniki. There the ‘greens’ lost the victory from their hands. PAOK managed to score at the 101st minute, with a penalty kick and it was a draw.

This penalty was the decision of the Slovene referee Vincic with the help of VAR, 96 minutes into the match.

However, the delays were supposed to last 5 minutes. This is a paradox. Two out of the six changes decided by the coaches happened during the break. Until that point VAR had not been used. Why five minutes? Why there was a penalty at 96’? These are questions that remain unanswered. And Panathinaikos FC brings them forward with a press release? Let them wait for their turn to be summoned in front of the ‘Football prosecutor’.

‘Today in Toumpa we saw a match being decided by two wrong referee decisions and a penalty kick which was given under questionable conditions. 5 minutes of delay were decided in a match where two of the changes were made during the break, no use of VAR was made before the end, a clear foul on Perea was not given during the delays and in the end at the 5’20’’ of the extra time there was a penalty which was questionable to the least’, Panathinaikos FC’s press release states.

Panathinaikos was not the only Super League club to issue a statement

On Sunday there was a press release by Olympiacos which referred to what had happened during the Olympiacos – Xanthi match on Saturday evening. There were important complaints against the referee Diamantopoulos and those responsible for the VAR. In particular Olympiacos complained about what happened on the 61st minute of the game when a clear penalty was not given when El Arabi was brought to the ground by Xanthi’s goalkeeper Abad but no use was made of video technology. ‘I do not know what is the purpose of having VAR…’ was the point made by Pedro Martins during the press conference.

Some time earlier, the vice president of Olympiacos FC Costas Carapapas had publicly posed important questions: ‘Do you know who is the owner of Xanthi? Do you know who the owner of Volos is? You do not know? Because all over Greece people are saying that they have the same owner. All over Greece people are saying that both clubs have been bought by PAOK. Why don’t you say things by their name? They must come out and tell us who is pouring money into Xanthi and who is pouring money into Volos. At what price did they buy the shares? To what corporation they belong?’

There were reactions to this statement. PAOK by means of a press ‘leak’ threatened with lawsuits (in the same manner that it had threatened the president of Appolo Smyrna, Giorgos Georgiou when he stated last May that: ‘There is no Panopoulos in Xanthi, it has been bought by Savvidis. But you should also know that he also bought Panaitolikos for seven million. Xanthi he had bought last year but Panaitolikos was acquired twenty days ago. Kostoulas had gotten bored and tired’). Xanthi was… abstract without going into the substance of the matter. Volos FC chose its own tone by throwing insults at the vice-president of Olympiacos.

It was this last reaction that led to an official statement by Panathinaikos FC: ‘We all know who Beos and his “Volos” FC are. Unfortunately what is going to be made public in the next days will eventually also have to be dealt by the relevant authorities, the judiciary included. It is sad for all, but in the end truth will prevail. In regards to the last press release, it is… Sunday and the Football Prosecutor has time’.

There was also a statement by Larissa (AEL) FC: ‘God, this a tragedy! For how long are we going to see football being destroyed? That scum, the “lawyer” that does not know where the Courthouse of Igoumenitsa is, is staying in Athens and all day he is talking with Giannis Papadopoulos and Thomas…’. The reference is to the refereeing in the match with OFI.

There was also a press release by Panionios in regards to the refereeing in the match with Aris. ‘Our intent has been to do not refer to the refereeing after our Club’s games. Some have taken this as a sign of weakness. After the games with Volos and PAOK we were expecting some intervention from the part of authorities. After the games with Lamia and OFI we did not protest. However, after what we experienced in the game with Aris, we are full of anger’.

Mr. Manouchos and the well known in the community of Panionios Mr. Skoulas made their intentions clear from the beginning of the game. They started targeting our players from the thirteenth minute, when our two defensive midfields had already gotten their yellow cards.’ ‘Congratulations gentlemen. Long live Greek Football, with its state employees and referees. Panionios will fight to the end to stay in the League. The only thing we want is to ALLOW us to wage this fight with dignity, so that in the end we get what we deserve’.

Important note: All these about the 9th day in the calendar of the Super League 1. The one that is going to be completed with tonight’s Lamia-Volos game.

The vice-minister for Sports and FIFA have they got something to say about all this?