Paranga (football)

Paranga (, literally The Shanty) is a folk expression in Greece referring to the rigging games by selecting favourable referees and match-fixing at the Greek football championship.

Term and events

The term is most associated with the championships of Olympiacos F.C. during the years 1997-2003 and its then president Sokratis Kokkalis, but has also spread to refer to the general corruption in the Greek football.

With the method of telephone tapping, Makis Triantafyllopoulos, a TV journalist, trapped a conversation between Thomas Mitropoulos (invisible owner of Egaleo F.C. and at the same time "advisor of Olympiacos on arbitration matters") and a referee (Spathas), saying "...we only want Olympiacos F.C. and Egaleo F.C. gain, [...] the others..." and referring to Kokkalis as The Uncle.

In 2003, during the derby match between Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, the players of Panathinaikos were attacked by fans of Olympiacos, but the game was held normally. The head officer of the police forces that day, Giannis Tsironis, was hired later by Olympiacos.

In 2008, referee Dimitris Pontikis stated that indeed there was among the referees a group that favoured Olympiacos F.C., in exchange for a better career.

After the taking of Olympiacos' leadership by Evangelos Marinakis, new scandals came in the light, such as the Koriopolis scandal. In 2012, referee Konstantineas testified that an officer of the Hellenic Football Federation warned him to favour Olympiacos in a match against Skoda Xanthi F.C.. Konstantineas didn't accept the offer and later his bakery in the city of Kalamata was exploded.

Reactions

In 1999, after a Superleague Greece game between Olympiacos F.C. and A.E.K. Athens F.C. (referee Dimitropoulos), Demis Nikolaidis and other AEK players decided to abstain from the Greece national football team as a protest for the arbitration. They revoked in 2001 after the coming of Otto Rehhagel as manager.

In 2011, after the derby match between Olympiacos F.C. and Panathinaikos F.C. (referee Kalopoulos), Panathinaikos striker Djibril Cissé had an wrangle with Olympiacos president Evangelos Marinakis and stated he would abandon Superleague Greece because of the arbitration.

Appeals to the Greek Justice were made by some politicians, such as the ex-ministers Yiannis Kourakis and Giorgos Floridis, who stated that "a gang controls the referees from the background". In 2011 ex-minister Pavlos Geroulanos called the Greek football "totally corrupted". The whole judicial process had no result.

In August 2014, new elements came in the light by the National Intelligence Service involving Marinakis, Giorgos Sarris (president of the Hellenic Football Federation) and other football offficers and referees in the establishment of a "criminal organisation". In September 2014, Olivier Kapo, ex-player of Levadiakos F.C., stated in French media that in Greek football "everything is corrupted, mafia-controlled, while UEFA simply doesn't care".

See also

• Koriopolis
• 2006 Italian football scandal