Greeks in crisis after third team kicked out

Published: 30 Sep 2011 - 21:05:35

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Greeks in crisis after third team kicked out

Asteras Tripolis became the third team to be kicked out of the Greek Super League on Friday in a match-fixing scandal which has rocked the sport and left the 16-club top-flight reduced to a 13-team competition.

Asteras, who were also fined 300,000 euros by the league's disciplinary committee and relegated to the second division, join Olympiakos Volos and Kavala who were also ejected from the elite division for their part in the scandal.

Asteras president Giorgos Borovilos was banned from any football activity for the next three years and fined 30,000 euros.

Two other Super League clubs, OFI Crete and Giannina, both of whom moved up from the second division last season, were cleared of any wroing-doing.

Asteras have already played four matches this season, taking two points.

The Super League began its season at the end of last month with a reduced schedule and there is no indication as to what will happen to Asteras' results.

Olympiakos Volos and Kavala were eventually demoted to the amateur fourth division by the Professional Sports Commission.

Those two clubs are seeking to overturn that decision in the country's high court Council of State.

The commission said that neither club had been able to show that they are not still being run by owners who were banned from football for life for their involvement in a match-fixing ring.

The case has swung back and forth all summer, with Olympiakos Volos being expelled from the Europa League last month by UEFA.

The Federation overturned a July ruling by the Super League to relegate Olympiakos Volos and Kavala to the second division, although the Federation's appeals committee chose to punish the two clubs with points deductions.

The two club owners, Achilleas Beos (Olympiakos Volos) and Makis Psomiadis (Kavala), were fined 90,000 euros ($130,000) each and banned for life from any involvement in football.

Beos, who has since handed over ownership to a consortium, was arrested in June and accused of being at the centre of a ring that fixed matches so members could make money from betting on the games.

Psomiadis was arrested after a month at large, but released on bail. When a new court decision called for him to return to jail, he failed to show up and is being sought once again.