Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis held a meeting with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin and FIFA Vice-President Greg Clarke this morning, at the Maximos Mansion.
After the meeting, the Prime Minister and the Minister of State, Mr George Gerapetritis, proceeded to sign Co-operative Agreements with both associations, to aid the reform of Greek football.
PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin discussed briefly before their private meeting:
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: It is my pleasure to welcome you. As you know, we’ve taken a political decision to “clean up” Greek football for good. We are very much looking forward to your assistance to follow that path successfully. I am very excited that we are about to sign two documents that testify to our commitment to make significant progress in terms of upgrading Greek football and your interest in helping us with technical support. We firmly intend to succeed where others have failed. Greek football deserves nothing short of that. It’s a sport very much loved by the Greeks, and frankly, what we’ve seen doesn’t do justice to the product we aspire to have. So, once more, you are most welcome here and we thank you for your assistance.
Aleksander Čeferin: Thank you very much. We are also glad that the government is joining our common effort. I still think that football will sort itself out, but it can use our help. I’m glad, because this agreement we are signing clearly states that we are not aiming to government involvement with the sport; rather, it indicates that you are willing to help solve this problem. I hope Greece becomes once more one of the top countries for this sport, like back in 2004, when you won the Euro Cup.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: As you know, 2004 was a major year for us, and unfortunately we didn’t fully take advantage of that important moment. We have full confidence in the ability of Greek football to heal its wounds, with proper assistance and with proper guidance. As far as the limits of government intervention are concerned, we are sending a very clear political message –that is also the meaning of your presence here– and I am sure that this is going to be well received by everyone involved. I must point out that since we made it clear that we want football to heal, over the past month we’ve seen progress, in the sense that all parties have started behaving better.
Therefore, I think that the overall message is important. Again, thank you very much for being here.
The extensive meeting was also attended by the UEFA National Associations Director, Mr Zoran Lakovic; FIFA European Member Associations Director, Ms Emily Shaw; FIFA/UEFA Observer and Advisor at HFF, Mr Herbert Hübel; UEFA Head of President Office, Ms Ines Najvirt; UEFA Representative in Greece, Mr Marios Georgiou; FIFA/UEFA Independent appointed Expert at HFF, Mr Petr Fousek; and Protocol Officer, Mr Francesco Campagna.
The Greek side was represented by the Minister of State, Mr Georgios Gerapetritis; Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports, responsible for Sports, Mr Lefteris Avgenakis; Deputy Prime Minister, responsible for the coordination of the Government Work, Mr Akis Skertsos; Alternate Government spokesperson, Ms Aristotelia Peloni; and the Director of the Prime Minister’s Press Office, Mr Dimitris Tsiodras.
The key provisions of the Co-operative Agreements signed between the Greek Government and UEFA/FIFA are listed as follows:
UEFA/FIFA obligations.
UEFA/FIFA shall produce a comprehensive study on the improvement and upgrade of Greek professional football within three (3) months upon the signing of the present declaration of intent.
The study shall include specific, tailor-made proposals, based on international best practices, including but not limited to:
• The structure and organisation of the governing bodies of Greek professional football.
• The integrity of the game (to deal with the threat of match-fixing, corruption, and doping) in Greek professional football.
• The effective response to defamatory statements and any kind of violence and discrimination occurrences in Greek professional football.
• The referee system.
UEFA/FIFA will make efforts to ensure that these proposals are further elaborated by the Hellenic Football Federation employing the latter’s institutional instruments.
UEFA/FIFA will employ their trained staff, or any other independent specialist deemed necessary to fulfil these tasks.
The Greek Government is committed to incorporate any UEFA and FIFA proposals into the Greek legal order as part of its sports policy.
