Corruption and hooliganism in Greek football before the financial crisis

¶ … country of Greece is experiencing an ever-increasing financial crisis that some people suggest has worsened the sport of football within Greece and amongst Greek players. An olden past time, the Ancient Greeks played numerous ball games involving the feet. The first Greek team game, Episkyros, was then adapted by the Romans into harpastum and even mentioned by Antiphanes in his written work. Similar to present day rugby football, ancient football involved teamwork and footwork. Rich in history and scandal, Greek football has had its fair share of problems before the great financial crisis of present day.

The ones that see the issues surrounding Greek football blame it on the structure of the teams and the lack of regulation among players and leagues. People have noted along with several news articles, that Greek football is rampant with corruption and hooliganism. The main team of Greece, the Champions of Greece, are the Olympiakos, headed by Evangelos Marinakis, and they are the ones that set the boundaries and examples for other football teams to follow. When they experience instances of negative behavior and corruption, it seeps back into the other team, thus creating a negative effect within Greek football and overall player development.

After the ancient Greeks and Romans, Greek football took a present day format with invention of the league system in 1927. It was officially founded as the Panhellenic Championship and this first, professional football league lasted over three decades until 1959. Alpha Ethniki replaced Panhellenic Championship and ran for almost five decades, ending its run in 2006. In 2006, Superleague Greece took its place. News articles and surveys cite Superleague Greece with having several issues prior to the economic Greek crisis with 70% of players in 2011 reporting not being paid. The Greek economic crisis had its roots in 2008 with severe economic turmoil in 2012. This paper is meant to elucidate on the history of Greek football, the current top team, Evangelos, Marinakis, and the various literature that cite corruption and hooliganism as a big problem in Greek football before the financial collapse of Greece. Thusly, showing that financial instability was and is not the root cause of problems within Greek football, but rather, is just a small problem amidst bigger issues.

History

The current league system of Greece, Superleague Greece, consists of sixteen clubs. Winners of the league become Champions of Greece and as earlier mentioned, Olympiakos has won thirty nine times, and earned five Super League Titles, Nineteen Alpha Ethniki titles, and fifteen Panhellenic Championships. Olympiakos is an old team, spanning over all three Greek football leagues and have existed for many decades. Among the main team and most known, stand two other dominating forces of Greek football, Pananthinaikos and AEK Athens. Each winning twenty-one and eleven titles.

Besides regular Greek football, in the last twenty-seven years, women's football has developed a national league and is now referred to as the Greek football women A division. Although separate from Greek football, it has existed and continues to exist with similar structure and issues like dominance by singular clubs or teams. Pan-Thessalonian Athletic Club of Constantinopolitans, a Greek association football club, dominates women's football in Greece. It is an old club like the team Olympiakos, beginning in 1953.

When one says issues, Greek football has experienced several problems regarding corruption, hooliganism and missed opportunities like in the Euro 2004 event. Match fixing although extensively seen in Europe in general, is perhaps most prevalent in Greece. The Koriopolis a term deemed by the Greek press for a scandal-involving match fixing in Greek football and is a term that describes the events of June 2011 and the Olympiakos team. The inquiry centers on offences comprising of fraud, illegal gambling, money laundering, and extortion. Olympiakos the main football of Greece gave its leader, Marinakis, money and power more than just within the boundaries of the football industry.

The money he made gained him political influence in Greece as well as control of certain outcomes within Greek society and of course, Football matches. Marinakis ran as an independent in 2014 and acquired a seat as local council member in Piraeus, a port city. To add increasing measure to the level of power he has, his prior club spokesperson won the station of mayor. The effortlessness with which they both gained public office shows how Greece views Football and its management personnel.

Football in a way possesses the unrivaled power to act as a conduit between social gaps and unite the most random group of fans and people behind a shared goalpost. However, even with Marinakis' fortune and the ability for him to turn his team into a top notch team, Olympiakos and other Greek Football teams failed to deliver the kind of top-caliber performance one would expect from football teams. This was made especially clear going into Euro 2004. "The Greeks were total outsiders going into Euro 2004, having not been in the competition in the previous 24 years, and with their last appearance at an international tournament a disastrous showing in the 1994 World Cup" (Economopoulos, 2014).

The 1994 World Cup and the poor performance of the Greeks provide clear indication that Greek Football had its pitfalls long before economic instability in Greece. Moreover, even when Greece had some success in the Euro 2004 event, they did not manage to capitalize on it. "Greece failed to capitalize on their unexpected triumph, at least in the beginning. The malaise of the 1994 World Cup side returned to the squad in the 2005 Confederations Cup where Greece lost to Brazil (3-0), Japan (1-0)" (Economopoulos, 2014). What kind of teams are Greece running if they cannot compete on an international level? Are the poor performances due to match fixing?

Even with some success in recent times in Euro 2012, Greece still had trouble making it to the finals. "Greece remained undefeated in qualification for Euro 2012 but were short of luck in the finals, making it through their group but facing eventual finalists Germany in the quarter finals, who blasted Greece 4-2" (Economopoulos, 2014). Their performance in 2012 acts as a way to show the Greeks can still perform well even amidst economic turmoil and that the system in place in Greek Football still has major problems in proper training of its players. Sadly, it does not seem like the Greek government cares much about regulating the happenings within Greek Football. Instead of owners of football clubs wishing to improve their players and their teams, they instead want to secure political positions, money, and power. "Owning a football club has increasingly become a means of securing political influence in many European countries. The recent Koriopolis scandal in Greece is just one example of this" (NICULESCU, 2014).

A prime example of this is Evanegelos Marinakis. "Evangelos Marinakis is the president and owner of Olympiakos, and star protagonist of Greek football's biggest corruption scandal. Known as Koriopolis, the case around Marinakis and approximately 80 other suspects focuses on charges of bribery and match fixing" (NICULESCU, 2014). Evangelos has amassed quite a bit of wealth and power from his position as owner and president of Olympiakos. Not only has he been allegedly involved in match fixing, but he has also attempted and succeeded in gaining power in the Greek government.

The scandal that erupted in Greece with match fixing is nothing new. Match fixing existed in Ancient Greece as well. "…match fixing scandals were reported some 2,800 years ago, in Classical Greece. Athletes and coaches caught cheating were forced to erect statues of gods in front of the ancient Olympics venue in order to expiate their sins" (Krol, 2014). Nevertheless, dissimilar from those instances of history, Modern Greek society is progressively complacent. Europe has witnessed multiple instances of match fixing in football in the past. However, none have been as pervasive as in Greece and in Greek football. "The Koriopolis scandal is a snapshot of how a football owner can use a club as a tool to benefit from a country's fragile rule of law. During the Koriopolis scandal, Marinakis was both the owner of Olympiakos and the Hellenic Football Federation's vice-president at the same time" (NICULESCU, 2014). The Koriopolis scandal not only displayed the lack of proper regulation in Greek football, but also the lax laws concerning management of football clubs and teams within Greece.

People attach the economic turmoil experienced within Greece with the corruption of Greek football. However, this level of corruption existed long ago, before Greece experienced economic instability. Logically speaking, if the owner of a long running football club shows corrupt ways and performs match fixing, it must mean this kind of activity has been going on for quite some time. Marinakis did not amass his wealth within just a few short years. It took him at least a few decades to get to where he is now in terms of wealth and status. Surely, he was fixing matches long before the financial decline of Greece.

Moreover, the scandal was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of witnessing corrupt activity within Greek football. When looking at the history of match fixing in Greece, it stretches back far longer than expected. Evidence of match fixing, a serious problem in Greek football, existed well before the serious collapse of the Greek economy. "Greek football's problems were first flagged up two years ago when Uefa sent the Hellenic Football Federation a file detailing 22 second-tier matches, played January-May 2009, which showed evidence of match-fixing" (Slater, 2014). In 2009, although Greece experienced some financial difficulties as a country, they were not at the level of recession they are now and especially in 2012 and 2013. Well enough people have hypothesized that issues like bad governance could be at the root of the problems facing Greek football.

Bad governance within the football world is a worldwide obstacle that necessitates resolution and urgency. "The international football industry is plagued by weak governance, scandals, corruption, conflicts of interest, infighting, match-fixing, foul play, greed, the enterprises of shady agents, and poor performance on the field of play" (City Press, 2013). Although Greece is just one of many countries with lax regulations concerning football, it is the most obvious in showing the many flaws regarding the country's rules and policy. Greek football owners like Marinakis are gaining more and more power as they acquire political positions and profit greatly from their underhanded methods regarding their teams and clubs. People show little concern not only with the overall ability of the Greek football teams, but also with whether or not the players receive proper compensation. Instead, the owners pocket most of the profits and fix matches to suit their needs with players repeatedly reporting they have been approached with throwing matches.

It takes years for these brazen behaviors and actions to develop, proving they did not start when the Greek economy began a decline. Furthermore, in most recent times, the Greek economy has begun re-stabilization of its economy. As the Greek economy inches further and further from the so called 'junk status', with the majority of analysts anticipating it to emerge from crippling recession this year of 2014, before increasing by 2.9% next year, 2015, mass street protests have now been left in the past. Even with the Greek economy seeing better days ahead, the same cannot be said of Greek football. The Koriopolis affair shows just how corrupt the Greek government and Greek football is and how officials of both parties deal with rule breaking. "…prompted by lax enforcement and greedy executives. It's a problem with deep roots in Greek society, enhanced by the rather toned-down attitude the media has in covering corruption cases" (Krol, 2014).

In addition to corruption and clear examples of bad governance, beatings have continued. On September 14, throughout a game in the Greek third division, a group of youths fatally injured and beat a football fan with brass knuckles. Even though the government has enacted laws to discourage such violent acts, these incidences still transpire today. "Over the past decade, in spite of multiple laws passed meant to discourage hooliganism, such violent events have become dangerously common" (Krol, 2014). So regardless of the economic state of Greece, the true problems lie within government structure and government policy. Here lies the weaknesses that allow the unacceptable behavior such as beatings and hooliganism to remain in Greek football.

Other instances of beatings comes in the form of late night hit and runs. Zografos, previous a top referee, he officiated FIFA competitions for numerous years back in the mid-2000s. In lieu of his accomplishments, he still received a harsh beating from unknown assailants that left him badly injured. "Today, he works as the assistant director for Greece's Central Referee Committee. Reports of the extent of Zografos's injuries are sketchy, but the beating was bad enough to send him to the hospital" (Blickenstaff, 2014). More confirmation of the level of exploitation and bribery that exists in Greek soccer appeared last May in a publication titled: "Don't Fix it." The publisher FIFPro, explained in its report its findings from a broad study displaying the extent of match fixing in Greek and European soccer. "As a snapshot of continental corruption, "Don't Fix It" is fascinating. In Greece's case, it is also damning: 12.8% of the players surveyed indicated they had been approached in the previous 12 months by someone "who asked you to fix a match" (Blickenstaff, 2014). Why is it that beatings have become a part of Greek football? Why is this behavior allowed or glazed over by the Greek government?

People might suggest the economy is to blame for the recent beatings, but perhaps it has more to do with the fact that people see the apparent complacency of the government and are less careful with their corrupt actions. It cannot be that these kinds of happenings occurred just within a short time span. The Greek football teams have shown clear inability to perform at competitive levels in the past, suggesting match fixing reduced the teams' potential to perform. The beatings could also have existed long before allowing people like Marinakis to rise up in the Greek political ranks.

Overall, regardless of how people react to the circumstances surrounding Greek football, it is clear there is a major issue within Greek football and the Greek government that must be resolved. The Greeks must learn to deal with their complacent government officials and lax policies to avoid progressive corruption and power plays within the sport. Past instances in society suggest that without proper regulation chaos ensues. This is true for any aspect of society and is especially true in sports. The United States experienced it in baseball with baseball players testing positive for anabolic steroid use and it is true in Greek football with hooliganism and match fixing appearing more often than expected in newspaper articles and headlines. People no longer have faith in the sport of football within Greece and that is largely in part to the way it has been organized and implemented over time. The level of corruption witnessed in Greece takes years, if not decades to form.

Possible Alternative Causal Variables to the Crisis

Bad governance provides some possible cause to the Greek football crisis. The Greek government enacted laws and policy that allow owners and managers of football teams to do things with minimal regulation or supervision. Instead of people, especially players assessed and trained properly with salaries paid and benefits received, football players are given no pay, are forced or coerced to throw matches, and are given little opportunity to improve their skill. Most of the time the owners of Greek football teams and clubs are more focused on profit and trading players than they are of improving them.

If the Greek government stepped in and forbade such behaviors, especially when it came to paying players on time and accordingly, many of the corrupt actions seen in the news would diminish. More often than not if there is a supervisory force working to keep things in balance within an organization, minimization of corrupt occurrences would increase, allowing fairer and just practices. Without such supervision and regulation, players no longer feel assured they have rights and receive protection from exploitation and unfair wages and practices.

The government plays a big role in how a society develops. If a government is corrupt, the people will be corrupt. Organizations will be corrupt. With Greek politicians coming from such corrupt organizations like the Greek football league, it shows how bad the situation in Greece has become. Marinakis has political influence within Greece and may even feel more powerful and more daring to commit acts that are more corrupt because he can influence and control on some level the policy and laws that govern Greek football. In a way, Greek football has become a cyclical and progressive display of corruption that Greece must alleviate.

So many people have shown the willingness to complain about the dire situation in Greek football with players speaking up and complaining, but without the reduction of power of the owners of these football teams, nothing will change, which leads to the next causal variable, football owners and managers. Football owners and managers currently within Greek football should be replaced with more capable and less corrupt people. The public or the government can step in and elect who would manage and own these teams or at least strip the power of the owners.

Many of the problems facing match fixing come from actions by the owner as seen with Olympiakos and Marinakis. Marinakis performed match fixing which would explain how the team won so many matches yet underperformed internationally. If the organization replaces management and reduces the power of owners as well as ban certain actions, then the organization can enact and enforce fairer practices. It truly is all up to how the Greeks wish to deal with the behavior of the owners and management and how much power they want to give them or permit them to have.

The last possible causal variable is established teams. Olympiakos has existed for several decades. If newer teams came in and were allowed to play fairly against old teams/clubs like Olympiakos, this could give rise to healthy competition and improve the overall performance of the players. Players need to feel some form of pressure when it comes to playing. If they are in a team that faces little competition. They will not improve. They will not reach the level of ability that teams need on an international playing field.

Healthy competition provides improvement in any sports team. It allows players to improve and grow as individuals and team members. It also provides increased opportunities for the country they represent. It would be a great way to fix many of the problems facing Greek football. The lack of competition could certainly provide problems for Greek football as a whole. Healthy competition has not existed in Greek football for many years. Established teams stay at the top with very little differentiation in the years that follow. Teams like Olympiakos show how little the league has changed even with its various reincarnations. It is and should be an important element to consider when attempting understanding the real problems facing Greek football today; this may be a crucial step in bettering and improving the league in the future.

Literature Review

Introduction

This literature review will cover several topics important in discussing the past and future of Greek football. Things like environment, corruption, and hooliganism, will be represented in the selected literature in order to highlight the struggles existent in Greek football clubs. Greek football clubs are relatively new compared to other countries and emphasis on the lack of regulation and proper management will also be highlighted. One of the important things to notice when it comes to Greek football is the history behind it and the current happenings in the sport.

Environment

In an article titled: "Profitability of the Greek Football Clubs: Implications for Financial Decisions Making," Panagiotis examines the profitability of football clubs within the Greek Football League's first division, including factors contributing to overall performance within a ten-year range from 1994-2004. "The results indicated that the profitability of the football clubs is positive associated to their short run success, but not on the long run success and seasonal uncertainty of the league" (Simons, 2011, p. 170). Moreover, the results indicate that the size of the team/club was also an indication of the club's assets, and represents a distinct aspect that affects the economic performance positively. Lastly, the article explains the extent of "asset turnover" as well as the ROA reporting by clubs as proving to possess major positive impact concerning profitability. This means, the bigger the club, the more money for the owner in terms of profit.

It also means profitability is only reliant on short-term success. Therefore, match fixing promotes such short-term success and thus increases profits for clubs and more specifically club owners. Club owners are more inclined to see how the can increase short-term success vs. long-term success as they want higher profits. Corruption thus extends to the club owners because of the way Greek football assures profitability. It promotes unscrupulous actions in order to get the short-term wins needed to make money.

In an article by Anagnostopoulous, the author explains the often-confusing setting of Greek football. "Operating in such a perplexing environment, managers of professional football clubs are often confronted with equally complex tasks. In order to make the best possible decisions, managers need to prioritize these tasks based on identifying the stakeholder who really matters at any given time" (Anagnostopoulos, 2011, p. 249). Managers of professional football clubs are ultimately concerned with making money for the club and more importantly the owner of the club. That means managers will often times commit to behaviors that will lead them to corrupt behavior in order to fulfill the demands of the stakeholders or for instance, club owners.

Environment plays a big role in how managers of football clubs behave. In any given situation, the way Greek football remains organized, people will succumb to distinct pressures. This means managers will do what it takes or may do what it takes to ensure profitability and decent return on investment for stakeholders of football clubs. It, in a way, becomes a business were the managers becomes sales associates attempting to make the most money for the head of the company, the owner of the club. Environments such as this have existed long before the economic turmoil experienced within Greece in recent times.

Greece has not had football as it is now until later on compared to other European countries. "In modern Greece football was a late-comer compared to other countries in Europe. Up until the establishment of refugee teams in Greece after 1922, football and other team sports such as basketball and volleyball had made very little impact on Greek sporting traditions and were considered alien" (Georgakis and Light, 2010, p. 274). Because of this, Greece looks at football differently than other countries like those that Brazil does. As for the owners of Greek football clubs, they often stand to perceive profit over quality more than they should. Perhaps it is the value placed on the support or the newness of the sport in general within Greece.

Although ancient Greece dabbled in games played with feet and even match fixing, modern football failed to make such an impact in modern Greece. People always saw football, within the country of Greece, as not as important as other things. This carried over in the perspective of club owners. Hence why people like Marinakis, tried to make money over creating strong and capable teams. Money in the end continues to be the driving force within Greek football.

Another article by Dmitropoulous and Limperopoulo suggests the environment in which Greece created its version of football pulls from standards meant to increase profit and not from the European standards meant to increase player performance.

…results indicated that the higher the investment in player contracts is, the more successful is the club on the field. However, as the investment in player contracts by football managers is increased, the club is becoming more unprofitable and insolvent suggesting that these decisions are not based on economic standards, a fact which verifies previous arguments that football clubs in Europe aim to maximize the athletic performance and not the financial. (Dimitropoulos and Limperopoulo, 2014, p. 123).

Essentially Europeans forsake profit in lieu of better performing athletes. This is not the case for Greek club owners as they are more interested in profit over anything else.

The environment for which Greek football emerged plays a pivotal role in the way it progresses throughout present day. A need for profit increases corruption. It also increases improper handling of players and overall structure of the league. Aside from financial factors, the environment consists of the newness of football to Greece. It also includes how people within the league perceive football as a whole.

As earlier mentioned, football advances within an environment of healthy competition. If competition does not exist or it deferred to something else, like profit, it changes the dynamic within the sport. "It is widely accepted that a degree of competitive balance is an essential feature of attractive team sports. Sporting competition is a process that establishes a hierarchy among the participants-winners and losers" (Szymanski, 2001, p. 69). Greek football has become a means to acquire wealth and power, at least for club owners. This means that football, the sport, is far from what it could be within Greece.

Greece's attitude concerning football has existed within Greece for a long time and continues to do so regardless of the economic status of Greece. Many suggest that although Greece is seeing economic development and improvement in recent times, it stands to reject the true competitive nature of football as a whole. Resistance of standard format in support of higher profits destroys any true meaning of football within Greece. "…we find that soccer match attendances are indeed maximized where the uncertainty of outcome is greatest. However, as we shall show, this does not imply that arguments in favour of greater equalization of team strengths are actually valid" (Forrest and Simmons, 2002, p. 229).

Competitive balance, an essential aspect to football, becomes a missing aspect of Greek football in modern times. "Competitive balance refers to the rational expectations of fans about who will be the winners. In a perfectly balanced contest, each participant starts with an equal chance of winning, so that the outcome will be completely uncertain. (Szymanski, 2001, p. 69). If no competitive balance exists, then the precise result will be completely uncertain. With match fixing, the uncertainty is removed and a pre-determined outcome is implemented. Thus, removing any form of true competition inherently developed in the sport.

Many countries experienced commercialization of certain aspect of society. United States saw this in the prison system and Greece experiences this in their football league. People in the end want to make money. That means they will offset anything else to make sure they make their profits.

Financial Difficulties

People see in the news Greek football owners making profits and gaining power. However, that does not equate to profit gains for club members and more specifically, players. "Greek football clubs have recently experienced, and indeed still face, serious financial problems. Accordingly, the SL has, from the outset, put great emphasis on the creation of a uniform accounting, management and auditing system for monitoring and controlling all members" (Anagnostopoulos and Senaux, 2011, p. 722). Controlling or regulation of all members is an important aspect of proper management. This is inherently lacking within Greek football. Owners are not holding up their end of the deal when it comes to paying their players and dividing the profits evenly or fairly amongst the clubs.

As earlier mentioned in the introduction, club players experienced no pay while playing for these teams. It is not to say that all Greek football clubs/teams are like this, but a large number of players have complained about lack of pay. Sadly, more and more teams experience the same kind of problem in Greece and continue to do so. That is merely because of the continuing lack of regulation experienced within most Greek football clubs, especially the bigger ones like Olympiakos. Afraid to follow ongoing failure, Greek football clubs changed to adapt to other more successful leagues. "Greek football clubs can be seen as having followed such a mimetic process. Uncertain of how to deal with the professionalization and increased commercialization of Greek football over the past few decades, torn between sporting and financial objectives and facing huge debts and persistent hooliganism, these clubs have modelled the Greek SL on the apparently successful English Premier League"

These changes come in stark contrast to the lack of change the league experienced over the years. "However, the Premier League has so far been little different from the old First Division. In the short-term the extra funding has helped to pay for the rebuilding programme for the larger clubs" (Szymanski and Smith, 1997, p. 150). In the long-term, generation of such powerful devolved interest, not in the overall performance of individual clubs but in the appeal of football as a complete concept has introduced a different set of rules to the sport within Greece. In the end people want to participate in the football world in Greece for purposes and reasons outside of what other countries participate in football for.

As some literature suggests, there is an apparent lack of passion for the sport in Greece amongst players and especially management and owners. For some, football inspires solidarity and pride. Nevertheless, for people like club owners, it is a means for money and power. That is not how football should be conducted and leads to severe problems in the end. Things like hooliganism and problems concerning corruption become commonplace.

Hooliganism and Political Corruption

Many countries experience some form of hooliganism in any sport they participate (Frosdick and Marsh, 2005). Greece is no different. However, the level of hooliganism, much like the underhanded methods of club owners is not properly regulated by the government, leading to problems concerning deaths and beatings of important figures and innocent fans of the sport.

The results indicate that more serious incidents of spectator violence in and around stadia have a significant negative effect on attendance demand. These incidents involve stadium damages, violence toward players, referees, fans, and the police and resulting injuries. Less serious manifestations of stadium disorder do not have a negative effect on demand but have increased dramatically in the last years. The big five clubs Olympiakos, PAOK, Aris, AEK, and Panathinaikos seem to create the most incidents of spectator violence. Our results imply that there are economic gains to football clubs from effective spectator violence control (Avgerinou and Giakoumatos, 2011, p. 155).

Why violence in the sport has not been controlled is an oddity. If club owners gain more profits from less violence, less acts of hooliganism, why is it that these beatings and deaths persist? Some may say it is due to the match fixing and the results of angry fans and enforcers. However way it goes, it diminishes the audience potential for football games. That could spell heavy loss for Greek football clubs as audience attendance plays the main role in profits. "Recently, ING surveyed 16,000 people over 18 how much money they would be willing to give up to see their national team win the European Football Championship. Thirty-three per cent of the respondents mentioned on average an amount of €297" (ING.com, 2012).

Corruption exists in all forms. Sports is no different. In an article by Hill, hill explains the dynamic between fixing matches. "The findings are that the corruptors have five distinct stages in fixing matches access, set-up, calling the fix, performance and payment - and that their methods of approaching players are similar to the business strategies of some erotic dancers" (Hill, 2009, p. 411). To compare match fixing to erotic dancers, shows the level of persuasion inherent in these kinds of underhanded social dynamics. Everything revolves around short-term gain. As previously, discussed short-term gain in Greek football is what most club owners strive towards and end up allowing regardless of potential setbacks. People ultimately want to earn money and increase profits. They will do what it takes to assure it.

Political Clientelism and effects of Unemployment

The Greek football team/club Olympiakos' owner, Marinakis is now politically active in Piraeus. Evangelos Marinakis won in 2014, a position of local council member in his hometown of Piraeus. He ran as an independent. On that same list, he featured previous club representative Yannis Moralis. When they both one positions, with Moralis becoming Mayor of Piraeus, Reuters and other news outlets declared rarely has sports and business been so openly enmeshed. This in a way presents a side of political clientelism because of the patronage and political support experienced within Olympiakos."Although political clientelism, which involves the disbursement of financial, employment, or other forms of patronage in exchange for political support, is regarded as a common phenomenon in southern European states its dynamics have been unexplored in relation to sport policy" (Henry and Nassis, 1999, p. 43). Marinakis' father financially supported the team and was politically involved. His son followed suit. Interestingly, in 2010, when he became president of the club, that is when the team experienced multiple wins, which would have easily come from match fixing. The Greek football market is small compared to other countries. "Price, income and unemployment are found to be statistically significant in the small Greek football market, while controlling for classic sporting determinants of demand such as success, entertainment and promotion/relegation" (Avgerinou and Giakoumatos, 2009). Although certain aspects like unemployment affect the sport, it does not do so in the sense of allowing to drastically alter how it is managed (DIMITROPOULOS, 2006). People must understand the various effects of underhanded tactics and strategies not just in the sport but in the way, the league makes money within the sport. Things like regulation then become important aspects of proper management.

Methodology

For the paper, interviews conducted with seven people show the level of problems surrounding Greek football. The interviews range from club director to club owner.

Interviewee 1 -- club director

"Of course competitive balance is an issue. The league is like a single horse race. But at the moment, this does not constitute the biggest problem of our league"

Interviewee 2 -- journalist

"Crisis in Greek football is not economic. It just deteriorated the situation and it also may have helped us understand where we stand"

Politics and governance

Previously, during the 1980's and the 1990's, even election of referees was based on political criteria. (Interviewee 4 -- journalist)

"…in England the catharsis of the sport began from the state. In Greece, every single time the state tried to intervene, the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF) used the self-regulation of sport as an excuse and prevented this from happening" (interviewee 2, journalist).

"HFF will brake every -- positive -- political initiative based on the self-regulation of sport. Thus, we end up having a football environment, which, in truth, is governed each time by the most powerful club owner. Consequently, football in Greece throughout the years has been a toy in the hands of Vardinogiannis from Panathinaikos, Melissanidis from AEK, Kokkalis from Olympiakos, Pateras from Panathinaikos and more recently Marinakis from Olympiakos. (Interviewee 3, journalist).

"for as long as the most powerful club owner can manipulate the elections for the President of the HFF and have absolute control over him, we will not have a trustful and reliable football in Greece" (interviewee 2, journalist).

Regarding the economic instability of the clubs and the extent to which the governments and HFF can be held accountable another participant said:

"In Greece, there is a clear lack of political will from the state to control the part of the football that it can control. All the football clubs fall under the Ministry of Develpoment and must meet certain requirements in order to be considered as limited companies. The majority of the football clubs, nowadays, look more than kiosks than limited companies. If, many years ago, the state had intervened and controlled the way that the clubs were operating as companies, many bankruptcies would have been prevented and the cancer would not have spread.

The reason why they chose not to intervene is clearly electioneering. Football is a matter of great importance. If you decide to "tease" on a club the fans will revolt and therefore the political cost will be too high" (interviewee 6, club owner).

"when licensing was introduced to the Greek football, clubs who failed to be granted a license were not able to participate in the league. This measure was later dropped as being very strict and certain restrictions about the transfers were imposed. OK, but what is going on with the debts? I may be restricted from new transfers but how can I prove that I can save the club? This is how the phenomenon of counterfeit tax clearance certificates arose.

The HFF show an incomprehensible flexibility as far as compliance with the laws that they have enacted is concerned. Even the ones who break the law, they still find a way to compete at the championship which creates unfair competition with respect to those who follow the rules. Consequently, those who try to be economically correct end up having worse teams than the ones who follow illegal practices.

The HFF is an accomplice to this crime. Although they know what is going on there, they simply decide to ignore it.

After all, I've lost my faith in the state" (Interviewee 6, club owner).

"If all these happened unbeknownst to HFF, then HFF didn't conduct a proper audit. If not, then HFF just let a problem to expand. In any way, HFF is an accomplice to the crime" (interviewee 7, journalist).

"Before this year's championship began, 4 clubs (OFI, Panionios, PAS Giannena, Kerkyra) were not granted the appropriate license to compete. The Minister of Culture passed a provision extending the date of submission of the documents required for the license" (interviewee 4, journalist).

Organization and structure of the Superleague

"this (the creation of the Superleague) was a bubble that popped on the hands of the clubs that are now in charge of their own product and have to face bad managerial decisions of the past" (interviewee 1, club director)

"Superleague is not operating harmonically. The situation has not changed. Only the name of the product has changed. The concept of fair play between the clubs is absent. The most powerful man can control football and influence the decision makers for his own benefit and not for the benefit of the clubs collectively." (interviewee 1, club director)

"They never really cared about the product. They only did it to earn more money from the broadcasting rights. At this moment, Superleague, as well as the HFF, is under total control of the owner of Olympiakos, Vangelis Marinakis. He has put his own men in all the crucial positions" (interviewee 4, journalist).

"The creation of the Superleague should have been a starting point for something new. They had to admit that, as in any new beginning, there would be some mistakes. Instead, the first controversial penalty created new reactions and derogatory press releases from the clubs. Within the first three months it was obvious that everybody only cared about themselves" (interviewee 7, journalist)

"After all these years, the Superleague is now seen as a failed attempt of the sons of Vardinogiannis (Panathinaikos FC) and Kokkalis (Olympiakos FC) to shape the product. Even though they tried, their effort was undermined by their fathers" (interviewee 4, journalist)

"In the beginning of 2000's a research showed that a league size in the likes of the Scottish League would be ideal for the Greek football. For yet another time, something paradox happened. With the intervention of the Deputy Minister of Sports, the clubs in the Superleague increased from 16 to 18. Obviously, with elections on the way, he chose to give a chance to a club from his constituency to play in the Superleague. Consequently, he forced the Superleague to increase the size of the league." (interviewee 2, journalist)

"How is it possible that crucial decisions are made by others rather than the club owners who spent their money on football? For example, it's impossible for the Superleague not to be able to decide upon the referees. At the moment, the HFF is responsible for the referees. The appropriate body that organizes the league should be the one to choose the referees that will participate on it. But they don't do it because the one who controls the HFF also controls the referees and, as a result, the football as a whole. Today it's ridiculous for the organizing body not to be able to control every single aspect associated with its product." (interviewee 7, journalist)

"Once again, like this, we end up having a football environment that is in total control from the respective more powerful club owner of the time." (interviewee 3, journalist)