Greece defy FIFA to keep cup cancellation in place

ATHENS, Greece: Greek Deputy Sports Minister Stavros Kontonis will not reverse a decision to cancel this season’s domestic cup due to crowd violence, despite running the risk of the country’s teams being barred from playing in Europe.

FIFA and European governing body UEFA sent a letter to Greek authorities last Friday requesting they reinstate the Greek Cup by April 1 after the tournament was canceled by the government earlier this month because of crowd trouble at a match.

A failure to meet the deadline could result in sanctions that include the suspension of the Greek federation, clubs blocked from playing in European club competitions and the national side also barred from international tournaments.

“I hope it is understood that the Greek government has no intervention of altering the decision to cancel the Greek Cup competition due to its exhaustive efforts in trying to protect basic social rights such as public order and social peace,” Kontonis said in a letter to FIFA circulated to local media.

“We declare yet again that the Greek government fully respects the self-governing function of sports federations and is not intervening in the administration, nor on issues related to sports,” he added.

The competition was called off after the first leg of the semi-final between PAOK and Olympiakos on March 2 was abandoned amid crowd chaos.