Exclusive: Infantino fires second warning shot to Greece over football law proposal

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Category: Europe

Published on Friday, 01 May 2015 13:34
By Andrew Warshaw in Bahrain
May 1 – UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino has reiterated that his organisation will not hesitate to carry out its threat to suspend Greece from its competitions if there are no concrete moves, by the end of next week, to stop government interference in football.

But UEFA is in a difficult position with so many of the leaders of the sport in the country currently awaiting court proceedings, and the full extent of the culture of violence and repression within the football governing bodies only now beginning to see the light of day.

Infantino held urgent high-level talks in Athens this week with Greek officials, including sports minister Deputy Sports Minister, Stavros Kontonis, which appeared to avert the threat of expulsion and end a long-running feud between Greece on one side and FIFA and UEFA, working together, on the other.

But he re-iterated that the Greek government must withdraw the full extent of the proposed legislation on Greek football designed to stop the spread of fan violence and match-fixing.

“There are some serious issues about fan violence and match-fixing which have to be addressed but I’m confident we can reach agreement on this legislation,” said Infantino.

However, speaking on the fringes of the Asian Football Confederation Congress where he was standing in for UEFA president Michel Platini, Infantino made it clear there was no room for compromise on certain issues.

“From the discussions we had, we are confident changes will be made. But if they don’t make the changes we will have no other option (but to suspend them). We will have no choice if they don’t meet the deadline.

“When you see certain articles which give the right to the government to do certain things which are clearly the prerogative of the association, if there is a law which empowers them to act in a way that does not allow the federation to be run independently, then we have no option.”

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