The letter, which was signed by FIFA and UEFA officials, and which addresses a number of provisions that are included in the legislative initiative, apparently conflict with the principle of autonomy required from FIFA member associations (or so the two organizations claim). As such immediate sanctions could possibly be adopted, that would obviously include the expulsion of all Greek teams.
Commenting on MEGA tv, Deputy Minister of Sports, Stavros Kontonis, said that he is not going to "change the philosophy of the sports bill” and that he does “not accept ultimatums”. At the same time he said that FIFA and UEFA’s supervision over Greek soccer “has failed”.
Later on, Kontonis later issued a written statement slamming the soccer governing bodies for ”intervening in the operation of the Greek government and Parliament” and accused them of provocatively “attempting to indefinitely maintain the state of decay and corruption” in Greek soccer.
At the same time the Greek minister also called on all international federations wishing to actively participate in the constructive process of improving the situation to submit their proposals in regards to fans, refereeing, management and betting, before a scheduled discussion which is set to be held on April 30th.
In other related news, Kontonis would meet with the chairman of Panathinaikos Yannis Alafouzos on Thursday and is expected to also meet with the president of AEK Vangelis Aslanidis on Friday, in order to inform them on the latest developments.
The draft bill is going to be submitted for discussion at the relevant Parliamentary Committee on April 27-30th, before going up for a final vote by the Assembly on May 4th and 5th.
The bill was drafted Kontonis, in response to violent clashes between soccer fan clubs at various games. In addition, it was a response to the death of a 47-year-old soccer from Piraeus who was killed in Crete last September after being assaulted by violent fans.
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