Bombshell letter from Marinakis to Baltakos: «Insolvent and trustee» – The end of HFF’s… coup d’etat

Radical developments in Greek football, with Evangelos Marinakis confirming that the Hellenic Football Federation’s… coup d’etat ends now. The Super League president in a stern letter to his -counterpart in the football federation- Takis Baltakos explains that… tolerance is over.

The letter reads:

Dear Mr. President,

Despite repeated consultation attempts that I made as Superleague 1 President and HFF 2nd Vice President with you personally in order to grant me the information I requested, unfortunately there was not the slightest response from your side. I am obliged to take this attitude as an institutional impropriety in the face of the Superleague 1 Cooperative.

Please be informed that the Professional Football’s tolerance towards the Federation is now over.

We will not stop the effort to stop the Federation from being a toy in the hands of shadow «Officials», a «center for passers-by» and a safe-haven of friends, acquaintances, relatives, and even «hooligans» of a well-known club.

It’s now confirmed the embezzlement of the millions of euros that Professional Football contributes to the HFF which however never reach amateur football, as they should and as is their destination, instead they end up in the pockets of dozens of favored employees with no apparent role.

From my position as Chairman of the Board of Superleague 1, I declare to you that the Cooperative will by any legal means now stop paying the percentages imposed by the HFF in the form of «imposed tax» to the Football Clubs and the percentages that the Federation receives will be limited to 0.5% as is right and fair. Superleague 1 Clubs are already sending letters and asking for the reduction of the percentages that the HFF absorbs from professional football and cover 60% of the Federation’s income.

It is our intention that Superleague 1 will directly subsidize Amateur Football and the Regional Associations of Football Clubs (meeting the conditions of the Law), so that Associations and Clubs have direct access to the money allocated to them and do not receive «peanuts», while «strange» people walking through the corridors of the Federation are paid hundreds of thousands of euros and their «partners» in the Regional Associations are setting-up businesses of their own.

The Cooperative’s legal advisors and external collaborators are already working on the plan of action and reconstruction of football with everything that needs to be done, and from now on we do not expect any consultation with you, Mr. Baltakos, who turned out to be a mere insolvent trustee, who one day says one thing and the next the opposite, with interviews, statements and lionizing.

Please be informed that as Superleague 1, a Member of HFF and its main financier, we will, as we owe, initiate every procedure for the full assessment of HFF’s finances and the management of the resources we have contributed in order to establish whether criminal offenses have been committed, such as misappropriation of funds, and which, for which we are obliged to hold you personally responsible. In such an event, be sure to add your name to the «Circle of Corruption».

And since when we ask you for the relevant data, the Federation’s servers «break down» for days, we will initiate every procedure to obtain the financial data as provided by the Law.

Because professional football pays tens of millions to the Federation and we learn that, for example, amateur football only receives a few hundred thousand euros. And every day that passes we realize that at the end of this investigation that is coming for the finances of the Federation, you will not only have professional football against you, but amateur football as well! Because everyone will understand where the millions paid by professional Clubs go. And that every amateur team throughout Greece will understand that they don’t have balls to play football because some people enjoy luxuries in super luxury hotels. But everything in its time…

As for the Professional Arbitration which is already a law of the Greek State, this beyond the dire necessity of its implementation and application, should be the exclusive responsibility of Superleague 1 both organizationally and functionally and at all levels.

Your attempt to place at the top of the CRC a sub-commissioner and bring in from the back door various – willing to ignore common sense and the wishes of professional football – sidekicks, who have been «expelled» from the Greek Refereeing body, will fall on deaf ears.

Finally, we inform you that for all of the above, FIFA and UEFA with which Superleague 1 now maintains direct and continuous communication will be informed directly. Since the supranational Confederations did not understand exactly what is happening in the HFF with the «puppet theater» you played as a Federation during the process of integrating the Holistic Study, they will immediately and first-hand understand what exactly is happening and where the (too much) money with which they finance the HFF are going, so that Greek football to be at the bottom of disrepute, organizationally and competitively.

For the SUPER LEAGUE 1 GREECE

Evangelos Marinakis