Football has not proved immune to the political and
economic crisis engulfing Greece, and its problems have largely reflected those
of Greek society. Yet as the Greek national side prepares to play hosts Poland
in the opening match of Euro 2012, football retains the potential to provide
inspiration to a suffering nation.
Political
strife
Greece
has been the epicentre of the European economic crisis. No country has suffered
as much from the downturn across the continent, with unprecedented bailouts,
severe austerity measures and resulting social unrest and protests.
The country
is increasingly ungovernable with political extremism on the rise, while the
Greek parliamentary elections were brought forward to May 2012 in the hope of
solving the economic and social problems engulfing the nation. Instead, Golden
Dawn, a neo-Nazi group with links to football violence, won 7% of the vote and
entered parliament for the first time. The moderate parties seen as complicit
in accepting the bailout and imposing austerity were hammered, and a second
election on June 17 looms.
Social
violence is also on the rise, with the fascists feeling legitimised by their
election to Parliament and newly emboldened. Attacks on immigrants are becoming
more common and sure to rise in the run-up to the new election. The country is
tense, divided, angry and ready to boil over. The scale of the protests in
February 2012 prompted one Greek filmmaker to question, “What do we have
left? Television and football.”
But amidst
the chaos, the impact on Greek football has been equally disastrous. Greek
football is marred by violence, financial collapse and corruption, a reflection
of the current state of the nation experiencing political and economic
catastrophe.
Football
falls foul
Issues
first began to surface early in 2011, when a match-fixing investigation widened
to include 54 matches, including a season decider between Olympiakos and
Panathinaikos, the two biggest clubs in Greece, and eventually implicated two
Super League club presidents, club owners, players, referees and a chief of
police.
The most
high profile suspect was shipping magnate Vangelis Marinakis, the President of
Olympiakos and the Greek ‘Super League’. While Deputy Culture Minister Giorgos
Nikitiadis described this as "the darkest day in the history of Greek
football", it marked only the beginning of a series of problems.
Historically
Greek football has had strong links to the shipping industry, with teams such
as Panathinaikos and AEK Athens associated with shipping moguls such as Andreas
Vgenopoulos, Nikos Pateras and Nikos Notias. When Marinakis bought
Olympiakos in 2010 it was billed as in keeping with the notion
that tanker owners financed local clubs as a social contribution. Shipping
was, however, one of the principal industries affected by the economic slump,
and the big football clubs were therefore quick to follow.
Owing to this perilous state of the economy, giant clubs including AEK
Athens and Panathinaikos are now on the verge of collapse and have been handed
suspended one-year bans from European competition by UEFA for falling foul of
financial regulations. The financial crisis is crippling the Greek football
league - Iraklis were previously relegated from the Greek top flight for
various alleged financial misdemeanours. The most worrying development is the
fact that eight teams are facing transfer bans and other sanctions due to their
not being able to pay their players. Leading players such as Fabian
Vargas and Jose Carlos are threatening strike action, with Carlos, a forward
for AEK Athens, recently stating,
“I don’t
care if the team gets cleared to play next season. I want all my money;
otherwise I’m not signing any papers. I’m not going to give you any more time
and I don’t care if other players are signing settlements. I’m looking out for
what’s mine”.
Politics
has never been far away from Greek football, with Greek businessmen viewing
ownership of Greek football clubs as a means to political influence, and it was
of no surprise when the Greek football league was suspended for one week in
February due to protest at a new law giving expanded powers to a
state-controlled sports committee.
Alongside
the economic and political impact, Greece has witnessed a corresponding rise in
stadium violence. There has always been a level of violence and hooliganism synonymous
with Greek football, with fan groups such as Original (AEK), Thyra 13
(Panathinaikos), Gate 4 (PAOK) or Porto Leone (Olympiakos) keeping a large
swathe of the Greek population away from football stadia. Panathanaikos in
particular has traditionally had far-right supporter groups, although were
largely dismantled by their President Yanis Vekris a few years ago. Yet recent
disorder has been on a distinctly greater scale, with the Athens derby between
Panathinaikos and Olympiakos abandoned in March after serious rioting,
with arrests, injuries and fires in the stadium.
It is set
against this backdrop that on Friday June 8 the Greek national football team
will take on hosts Poland in the opening match of Euro 2012.
A beacon
of hope?
The Greek
national side has historically been untouched by the violence that blights the
domestic game and the economic problems of Greek football, funded as it is by
an extensive sponsorship programme. Indeed the federation was recently
criticised for giving the national coach Fernando Santos a 45% payrise, while
the team jetted off to a Euro 2012 training camp at an exclusive resort in
Kitbuehel, Austria. Yet there is a sense that the Greek national team feels a
sense of duty and represents a potential force for good at a time of anger and
disillusionment in Greek society, with the ability to transcend conflict, bring
Greeks together and restore national pride at a time of conflict, chaos and
humiliation. Plagued by problems in football and society, does Euro 2012 offer
a beacon of hope?
Greece and Celtic striker Georgios Samaras said
in March, “Sometimes sport and football make people forget their
problems. So what we can do in the national team is play at the Euros and give
happiness to our people in Greece”, while in an interview Greek football
federation President Sophocles Pilavios stated, “I don’t know if the success in
a football match has the power to take one out of his problems. I
wholeheartedly hope so, I’m sure that the players can bring uplifting moments
to the Greeks.”
While only
a maximum of 5,000 Greek football fans are expected to follow the team in
Poland and Ukraine, there is no doubt that providing a boost to the embattled
country and its football-mad public is motivating the Greek footballers, and a good
performance from the Greek national side in Euro 2012 could lift the national
pride of the Greek nation and bring a measure of joy and respite to the country
watching the tournament at home. It could well be the only positive during a
difficult summer of elections, political strife and economic chaos.
There is a
recent precedent for this.
The
legacy of 2004
In 2004 the
country was also in crisis – the government faced criticism on all sides over
its preparation for the forthcoming Athens Olympics, with the whole competition
poised to relocate to Sydney amid fears that the country was dangerously behind
schedule.
But it was
at this point that the Greek football team came from nowhere to win the 2004
European Championships.
The squad
contained few exceptional players, but seemingly achieved the impossible
through hard work, determination and a single vision, united behind manager
Otto Rehhagel. The country went wild, and the returning champions were greeted
as heroes by the ecstatic country.
The Prime
Minister, Kostas Karamanlis proclaimed, “Greece is on the lips of everyone in
the world who follows this mass and magical sport called football”. Taking
inspiration from their success and the collective work ethic, Karamanlis
further implored the nation to unite and complete the Olympic preparations,
saying, “These boys taught us a lesson as to what Greeks can do when we
really believe in something”. Construction was ultimately completed, and the
2004 Olympics were generally perceived as a successful event, despite the
problems of how to use the stadiums following the Olympics.
Euro
2012
Today,
Greece finds itself in mired in catastrophe that dwarfs anything in its
history. But as in 2004, a European Championships looms large on the horizon.
Can football unite Greeks behind their country and restore national pride at a
time of conflict, chaos and humiliation? Can a good performance from Greece at
Euro 2012 really make a difference?
While
players, football figures and politicians may say and hope that it can make
this difference, a poor performance could merely add to the collective gloom
and disorder. The Greek national football side has proved that it has the
ability to rise above politics and social division, but the future is above
all, uncertain. The country is tense and riven by conflict, and there are no
guarantees that a good performance would have a long-term impact, but there is
no doubt that it would be a welcome distraction to a suffering nation.
National
skipper Giorgos Karagounis summed up the entire situation and possible impact
of the Euros best when he asserted, “There are many problems in football and in
the country and we all live these problems. But when it comes to fight for the
national team, there is no room for these thoughts”, while the team was
motivated “during the tournament, to help them forget for a short time at least
the problems of everyday life. Surely the Greeks are waiting for this joy and
we hope to give it to them.”
And as
Makis Papasimakopoulos, correspondent with Athens News, told me: “Anything to
do with European competition is important to Greeks. We even flooded the
streets when we won the Eurovision song contest! It’s always been like that and
right now it will be even more so. Greece needs the team to do well at the
Euros. There are no two ways about it.”
