The picturesque is amazing in this country during March. With all the things that have happened during the last 30 days, you could call it the month of stupidity. I am closely watching it from distance and I wondered many times why are we still be dealing with it. What have we done in our previous life to be a part of such football. However, it is something we decided to do and there is noone to blame for that.
Greek football had a golden chance, by tearing apart the cancer of the former Criminal Organization ("Gang" nowadays, according to the Supreme Court!) to make some steps forward. This was done, no matter what the system loyal servants' claim. And if they had not decided to demolish by themselves what they were building patiently, it would have been the first fair and square Greek championship in the history. They made amazing mistakes and now they will also have to suffer the awful criticism of those who walked on dead bodies, raped consciences, destroyed the product.
Two days before PAOK - AEK derby clash, I was telling that both teams deserve to be champions, because there such a small diference between them during 2017-18 season. What happened at Toumba Stadium proved me right as rain, until linesman Konstantinos Pontikis remembered that Fernando Varela's goal was offside and started running...
So, which is the only fair champion of Greece? Of course, the... eternal champion, the club of "we have 783 titles and all of you just 20"! The team which invested and managed to separate Greece in the middle in FOOTBALL terms and only. It was their only target remaining. They did it, congatulations. There is not even one organization so successful in doing what it really wants outside the field.
Since they lost control of the Hellenic Football Federation, this was the only... championship they could have won. The other one was to be decided in the field and nowadays they do not have all the referees, the Judges and even the last employee of the HFF to... protect their football investment and help them to win the title.
What they wanted and managed to do even at the last time was the total mess. To break the alliance (out of the fields) of AEK and PAOK. It seems, until now, like an invincible power, not business or political one, to be throwing a net in order to break this alliance and right now is very close to succeed it completely.
Greek football reached this low point because of extreme greed. The sponsors left, the product was demolished, TV channels stopped paying heavily, nobody wanted to be connected with something reminding more of Far West and less a very, very competitive game.
If the followers are investing in the idea of "winning titles no matter what", then obviously this is wrong and we were stupid to believe in miracles. However, I still believe, till the end, that the effort of the "opponents" to bring football back in their standards, back to the time of "it's us or nobody", will help them clear their minds.
It seems weird, but what there is on stake right now is much more important than a championship. It is the possibility to return to the point we were. With marked cards, all the players around the table, watching like stupid and without real power to interfere what's happening.
Blowing ups, beatings, threatening, blackmailing coincidentally happened all together when the championship was close to its end and for the first time there was not the same team much ahead, like in the past. So, there was stress, suspense and ever mistake was counted as double.
Is it possible to stand that for the people who were trying at this time of the year to fix even better the next championship and are currently living with the anxiety of a fair result every Sunday? The defamation of the competition was their main target, so the... March Madness of Greek football allowed them to start speaking loudly, the same people who were covering up dirty situations for two decades, about the... offside goal at Toumba Stadium and last season's Greek Cup final. Claiming that this championship was the... worst of the moder era in Greece. It was always the same for them. What is clean seems dirty to them and, of course, the opposite as well.
The supporters of AEK are only interested in winning the championship again, after 24 years. They do not care how. PAOK fans are not so interested in losing it (they have lost the previous 32 ones), but how that happened. The fans of Panathinaikos have their own problems and Olympiacos supporters only care about bringing their Sundays back.
Destabilisation was the main idea. It was expressed with NO to everything, verbal attacks against the members of Greek Parliament, bullying at Ministers' speeches and finally their statement about foreigners in every position of the HFF and the Central Refereeing Committee. By the time that there is not a possibility of 100-0 in favor of them, their only target was to end the... fairy tale of justice.
The science fiction writers are already working, writing about the disappointment towards the Hellenic Football Federation from... innocent football people. They do not have enough material not even for a soup, their disappointment is actually ridiculous and the innocent football people are the well-known loyal servants of the system, who became rich with suspicious ways, hurting the Greek football fans. Still, the publishing of such statements is actually very important. Now, there is a chance for those responsible to wake up and realize that there is another coup d'état threatening them, ready to become Dictatorship once again...
