Greek football rocked by arrest of 16 high profile members

A Greek special unit police investigation has brought match fixing cases against sixteen high profile members of Greek football.

The Greek police have yet to publish the names of the charged members. However Greek news sources have speculated that Evangelos Marinakis President of current Super League Champions Olympiakos FC is said to be one of the sixteen charged.

Evangelos Marinakis, a businessman and ship-owner who has owned Olympiakos since 2010, was previously implicated in another match-fixing scandal in 2010-11 which is still the subject to further police investigation.

The special criminal investigation is centred on the fixing of football results in matches which took place between 2011 to 2013.  The sixteen high ranking members have further been charged with the ‘involvement of criminal enterprise’.

Greek media has stated that the other charged members include high ranking officials from the Greek Football Federation, match officials and referees.  The impending criminal case against the sixteen members will likely be Greek footballs biggest match fixing investigation.

News of the match fixing and corruption allegations have rocked Greek football, which has suffered in recent years from financial instability and allegations of match fixing throughout its professional football leagues.

Despite the allegations this weekend’s Greek Super League matches will continue as scheduled.