The legislative bill proposed by the Deputy Minister of Sport Stavros Kontonis, which aims to address corruption and violence in sports, has been rejected by FIFA and UEFA.
In their joint response, FIFA and UEFA’s general secretaries Jerome Valke and Gianni Infantino explain that may changes are necessary, in order to ensure that the Greek national team and domestic clubs are not excluded from international competitions.
Amongst their main objections are the State having the right to ban Greek teams from international competitions, forcing clubs to implement electronic tickets at the risk of exclusion from competitions, the suspension of “suspect” games, the appointment of a prosecutor for football (but no other sport) and the State’s involvement in precautionary audits of the assets of referees.
Additionally, FIFA and UEFA claim that the responsibility for electronic tickets must lie with the owners of football stadiums and not the teams themselves. They did however agree on Mr. Kontonis’ initiative to tackle violence and allowing the Sport Minister to impose fines on clubs over actions carried out by fans.
