Monday, December 4, 2023
 
 

Greece ex-captain Zagorakis expelled from political group amid football turmoil

© European Union 2018 - Source : EP / Pablo GARRIGOS
Thodoris Zagorakis / CULT committee meeting - Structural and Financial Barriers in the Access to Culture - Adoption of draft report

- Advertisement -

Thodoris Zagorakis, MEP of European People’s Party (EPP) was expelled from Greece’s ruling party of New Democracy group in the European Parliament, following a decision by the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the government’s spokesperson Stelios Petsas said last week.
“The government respects the self-governance in football. But it cannot be blackmailed. The prime minister has decided to remove Zagorakis from New Democracy’s group in the European Parliament,” said Petsas.
The Greek MEP and once President of PAOK, had slammed earlier through his Facebook page, the proposal by the Committee of Professional Sports (PSC) in Greece to relegate the football clubs of PAOK and Xanthi.
Following a complaint by the rival team of Olympiacos Piraeus, PSC ruled that PAOK’s President Ivan Savvidis was involved in “multi-ownership,” which is against the rules of professional football in Greece, as the team of Xanthi had an “unlawfully composed” registration.
This would mean that the two teams will have to be downgraded and thus, play in a lower championship league.
In case PAOK is excluded from the Superleague, the country’s top football league, Zagorakis, the captain of the Greek national team that won the UEFA Euro championship in 2004, had announced that he would step down from the New Democracy party, considering it responsible of undermining greek football organisations.
On Wednesday, the Greek Parliament approved a controversial legal amendment that changes the penalty for cases of infringement of ownership rules, from relegation to a deduction of 5-10 points.
Having assumed office as an MEP of the European People’s Party in 2014, Zagorakis will probably leave the New Democracy Party and keep his EP post, as an independent member.
 

- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

Latest

Don't miss

Africa will watch the DRC’s elections with bated interest

2023 and 2024 are going to be busy years...

Ukraine, Middle East will dominate Cameron’s UK foreign policy agenda

David Cameron, who was made Foreign Secretary in a...

What will it take to prevent a Gaza reconstruction fiasco?

Let us be unequivocal about the current war between...

Ukraine’s persecuted mayor

Lest it be forgotten, the major thematic issue in...

Zelensky Athens visit eclipses Mitsotakis’ informal Western Balkans Summit

Receiving a full house of Western Balkan leaders, as well as several EU luminaries, in Athens on an evening when much of northern Greece...

Back to Business: Greek conservatives rout socialist opposition parties in second round elections

Delivering an undeniable demonstration of Greece’s current focus on stability and the need to generate continued economic growth, the June 25 election produced the...

Strange goings on in Northern Greece seem to worry Ankara

Government-linked Turkish media have indicated concern about a series of visits and events in Greece’s Evros prefecture -- the Greek-Turkish border region -- which...

Boomerang! Greek socialists’ election jiggering backfires

Even though the Greek left-socialist party Syriza massively reconfigured the electoral system in 2016 to favor their long-term return plans before being ousted by...

Eclipsed by Ukraine concerns, Blinken visits Turkey and Greece

After attending the Munich Security Conference on February on 17-19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed for a brief regional mission to Turkey...

Biden’s choice takes the reins at the American Embassy in Athens

US President Joe Biden’s nominee as next Ambassador to Greece George Tsunis arrived in Athens May 7, a day after his career diplomat predecessor...

Kazakhstan’s president proposes Constitutional reforms referendum

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed on April 29 holding a referendum in the Central Asian country on the draft amendments to the Constitution and...

TAP pipeline transports first 10 bcm of Azeri natural gas to Europe

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG has announced that a total of 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Azerbaijan has now entered...