The Sopranos: From Serie A to the Greek Super League – 2 Refs and a Scandal …distance (Vids)

AEK Athens squandered the chance to wrap up the Greek Super League championship for the 2025-26 season on Sunday evening against home side Panathinaikos Athens at the latter’s Leoforos Alexandras stadium. It’s a title they’ve been half-clutching for a month now, yet something always seems to delay this result.

On Sunday, the AEK players appeared tense in their obligation to unwrap a “gift” provided less than a half hour earlier at PAOK’s Toumba stadium, seemingly disoriented by Javi Hernández’s red card that left Panathinaikos a man down from the 17th minute. In this way, AEK kept the title race open, and this is a detail that in two weeks may mean nothing. But it may also not be as insignificant as it appears today…

Why? Because beyond the comfort of a six-point lead in the current playoffs, there is now a concern on the part of league-leader AEK of being chased by two teams, as the first Sunday of May became PAOK’s “resurrection” Sunday. The upcoming schedule will see a PAOK–AEK derby on Wednesday (May 13) and a AEK–Olympiacos derby (May 17), on the final matchday of the playoffs. So, it’s not impossible.

Razvan Lucescu’s PAOK managed, from the 65th minute (up 3–1) to overcome Olympiacos’ best 60 minutes in this Super League season—and that alone is grounds for an interesting discussion.

In his post-game comments, the Romanian coach, as the winner of the game, naturally focused on the back-and-forth play between the 63rd and 65th minutes. First, match MVP Jiri Pavlenka, PAOKs’ goalkeeper, denied an almost certain goal by an excellent Chiquinho to equal the score at 2–2 for Olympiacos. Then, before the ball reaches the opposite goal, Alexander Jeremejeff —with a magical touch—creates an incredible move that makes it 3–1 (65’). The match took on a roller coaster pace at this point.

And what about Olympiacos manager José Luis Mendilibar? The Basque coach, who has a great respect for football, limited himself to a quip like “we gave it away.” Yet, between us, no one spoke about the “elephant in the room”, which refers to how PAOK took the lead in the 15th minute with a goal that refereeing analysts judged should not have stood, citing three different reasons.

Television analyst and former referee Ilias Spathas explained two of them on Mega Channel:  “There is an offside-positioned player who moves toward the ball. Even if the referee thinks he is not in the goalkeeper’s line of sight, the goal cannot stand once Baba moves toward the ball. It’s offside because the exposed player deceives Tzolakis (Olympiacos’ keeper). Even if we assume his initial position doesn’t affect play, his movement is enough.”

PAOK defender Baba indeed did both: first limiting Tzolakis’ visibility vis-a-vis Michailidis’ shot, then going for the rebound—thus “playing” from an offside position.

A third version was given by analyst and ex-referee Panagiotis Varouchas on state broadcaster ERT, arguing that Jeremejeff’s goal should not have counted because it came from a throw-in wrongly given as a corner.

If one agrees that Olympiacos, with 10 shots on goal and at least 4–5 clear chances in the first half, was fortunate to head into the break at 1–1 because of that goal, then they likely understand two more things. First, that had they led instead of chasing PAOK from nowhere, they might have repeated an away win, similar to the one against Panathinaikos more than a week ago. And second, that once PAOK inevitably balanced the match, Mendilibar’s side—needing only a win—would have had to take big risks, allowing for open spaces and allowing the quality of Jeremejeff and Zivkovic to operate in a freestyle play.

Incidentally, the refereeing team was Italian, with Vergeitis as fourth official. Sozza was on the pitch, assisted by the linesmen Trinchieri and Fontani, with Pairetto and Fourneau the VAR duo. Together, they managed to fail to see three separate infringements in the build-up to the 1–0. Unfortunately, the referee, his second assistant, the assistant VAR ref, and certainly the VAR official inevitably stirred negative memories among Olympiacos fans.

Many recalled the quartet of Massa, Berti, Berzoli, Piccinini in the Olympiacos–AEK match (1–3) midway through the 2023 playoffs—a result that propelled AEK to the title and abruptly ended the Reds’ hopes. Others remembered the Olympiacos–Panathinaikos game in October of the same year—the abandoned derby that reached the CAS tribunal and became known as the “Juankar case”. There too, Italian referees were present: Maresca, Bacchini, Vecchi and Piccinini.

Do Italian referees have something against Olympiacos, or is it coincidence?

Would Sozza, for instance, have counted Yusuf Yazici’s goal in the recent Olympiacos–AEK derby a few weeks ago, judging that Pirola was not offside and not influencing AEK keeper Thomas Strakosha? They themselves obviously know. But others can also know certain things about them.

For about a week now, the neighboring country has been gripped by a football scandal centered on Serie A’s refereeing chief.

Gianluca Rocchi—the man in question—has already passed through the doors of a Milan prosecutor. He’s been the head of refereeing in Italian football since 2021, a favorite of UEFA refereeing chief Roberto Rosetti, who even selected him for the 2019 Europa League final. He is accused of manipulating matches by pressuring VAR officials over the past two years. There are various recorded conversations, as usual in such cases, but above all, a video from last year’s Udinese-Parma match, where a VAR official, having made a decision, looks outside the room and changes it.

That VAR official is Daniele Paterna (who is charged with perjury), and the incident concerns a handball and a potential penalty. In the video, initially released by a news agency, he is reluctant to award the penalty, noting that the hand is close to the body and asking: “Is it a penalty?” Moments later, however, he looks outside the room and seems to become have changed his mind: “Wait, Fabio, I’ll check the app. It’s a possible penalty, I recommend you review it.” The penalty is ultimately given.

“Fabio” is Fabio Maresca—the referee of the Olympiacos–Panathinaikos match, the “Juankar match”. He’s the one who wrote one thing in the Karaiskakis Stadium match report and something else in a supplementary report sent to the officiating committee two days later, playing a decisive role in Olympiacos losing the match on paper.

That VAR official is Daniele Paterna (who is charged with perjury), and the incident concerns a handball and a potential penalty. In the video, initially released by a news agency, he is reluctant to award the penalty, noting that the hand is close to the body and asking: “Is it a penalty?” Moments later, however, he looks outside the room and seems to become have changed his mind: “Wait, Fabio, I’ll check the app. It’s a possible penalty, I recommend you review it.” The penalty is ultimately given.

“Fabio” is Fabio Maresca—the referee of the Olympiacos–Panathinaikos match, the “Juankar match”. He’s the one who wrote one thing in the Karaiskakis Stadium match report and something else in a supplementary report sent to the officiating committee two days later, playing a decisive role in Olympiacos losing the match on paper.

And who was sitting next to Paterna in the Udinese–Parma match, the game that opened the door to the scandal? In that same game, as AVAR, looking at the same image, was Simone Sozza—the referee of last night’s PAOK–Olympiacos derby.

Someone who, until this matter is clarified, perhaps should not be officiating, arrived with his team to decide the fate of the PAOK–Olympiacos game. He was appointed by Stéphane Lannoy, alongside Greek ref Vergeitis—who has likely watched more PAOK matches this season than Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) President Makis Gagatsis—and who was the VAR official in this year’s Kifissia–PAOK penalty incident.

According to ex-referee Pascal de Melo, Gianluca Rocchi and his referees had developed a secret code to communicate inside the VAR room, based on the “rock, paper, scissors” game. The aim was to favor certain teams and protect certain referees from harsher evaluations, since VAR intervention could expose major errors.

Who said VAR can protect you from everything?