The government signs agreement with UEFA and FIFA aimed at reforming Greek football
PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis with UEFA’ s president Aleksander Čeferin (R) and FIFA’ s vice president Greg Clarke ANA – MPA/PM’ S PRESS OFFICE/ Dimitris Papamitsos
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin and FIFA Vice President Greg Clark on Tuesday at the Maximos Mansion. Following the meeting, the prime minister and Minister of State Giorgos Gerapetritis signed agreements with the two organisations on collaboration aimed at reforming Greek football.
In a discussion before their private meeting, the prime minister underlined the government’s intention to “clean up” football in the country: “We have made a political decision to ‘clean up’ Greek football once and for all and look forward to your contribution in order to join in this effort. I am very pleased that we will sign two documents demonstrating our commitment to make significant progress in upgrading Greek football and your interest in helping us with technical help. We aim, without a doubt, to succeed where others have failed. Greek football is worth nothing less than this. It is a sport that the Greeks really love and, frankly, what we have seen so far is really unfair to the football product we want to create.”
Ceferin said he said he was happy that the government was taking part in the joint effort and added: “I still believe that football will solve its problems, but without help … I am happy that this agreement we will sign clearly states that its purpose is not government intervention in sports, but that you have the will to solve this problem and I hope that Greece will become one of the top countries once again, like in 2004 when you won the Euro.”
Mitsotakis replied that “2004 was a very important moment for us and, unfortunately, we did not take full advantage of this important moment. We also have full confidence in the ability of Greek football to heal its wounds with the proper support. As far as the limits of government intervention are concerned, yes, we are sending a very clear political message, and your presence here also signifies that this message will reach everyone involved. I have to note that since we made it clear that we want football to heal its wounds, in the last month, I would say, we have made progress as there is improvement in the behaviour of all sides.”
Source: ANA – MPA
Greece and the U.S. relationship is strong and continuously growing, Rear Adm. Stamatopoulos says