A monitoring committee appointed by the international federation of football associations (FIFA) on 4 July 2017 has recommended that FIFA Member Associations ask the FIFA Council to immediately suspend the Hellenic Football Federation (HFF). In a 27 March letter to the FIFA Member Associations Committee, the Chairman of the FIFA Monitoring Committee, Herbert Hübel, argues that the HFF is no longer in a position to guarantee the smooth running of national competitions.

Last month, the HFF (EPO in Greek) was forced to suspend its SuperLeague after PAOK President Ivan Savvidis invaded the pitch during a match with AEK with what appeared to be a gun strapped to his waist. Hübel  writes that there have been ‘repeated incidents’ of violence in recent months that have not been quickly resolved by the HFF disciplinary bodies, which he argues will result in the 2017/18 Greek Super League being decided in the courts and not on the pitch.

‘Against this background, the MoCo [Monitoring Committee] urges the FIFA Member Associations Committee to analyse the current situation of the HFF without delay and refer the case to the FIFA Council for consideration’, writes Hübel in his letter (PDF below). ‘The MoCo unanimously recommends the suspension of the HFF from FIFA membership’.

The violence follows the sentencing of a number of people to prison terms in March on match-fixing charges. According to experts on the situation, up to 58 people were sentenced. The action was welcomed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), however the sentences are all subject to appeal.

Those sentenced include Georgios Borovilos, the former President of the Greek SuperLeague and current Chairman of Asteras Tripolis; former Chairman of Levadiakos and SuperLeague board member Ioannis Kompotis; former Deputy Chairman of the HFF Ioannis Papadopoulos; and many more. Olympiakos and Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis was not amongst those sentenced, after he stepped down as Chairman of the Greek club ahead of the trial.

Investigations into Greek match-fixing, which date back to 2011, were christened ‘Koriopolis’, a pun on the Italian ‘Calciopoli’ match-fixing scandal in 2006 and the Greek word for phone tapping (‘korios’). In 2015, 85 defendants were charged, however it is understood that over 100 charges against other individuals were dropped.

In March, the HFF was forced to defend itself against accusations that it had been given a ‘yellow card’ by international confederations over the situation. It argued that it has ‘maintained a close partnership with FIFA, UEFA and the Steering Committee for the sole purpose of institutional modernisation and transparency in Greek football’.