The content of the letter is the following (you can see here the official document):
“Gentlemen,
FC Panathinaikos, further to the shocking revelations which became public by a part of the press and are attached to the present, require the exemption of the fourth referee Stavros Mantalos from the football match between Olympiakos and Panathinaikos to be held at the stadium “G. Karaiskakis “on March 13, 2016.
The obvious lack of sensitivity, responsibility and understanding from your part, about persons involved in criminal files and the constant practice to disregard logical and morally imperative requests from FC Panathinaikos in similar cases, concerning the recall of referees appointed in matches, characterizes your essence and does not intimidate us.
We glean from the attached some extracts concerning the implication of Mr. Mantalos, both in the “Koriopolis” case and in the case of the criminal organization involved in Greek football.
In the first case of “Koriopolis”, the referee seems to be talking with an indicted former football agent, asking him to help him to contact an accused official of an important football team, to whom today involvement with football matters is prohibited, to “know each other better”, while the first official is commenting with Mr. Mantalos about the game, which he refereed and talk about “sprogs” and other filthy referee practices, as a joke.
In the second case, concerning the prosecutor’s investigation on the criminal organization involved in Greek football, the owner of Olympiakos, V. Marinakis, talks with G. Sarris, at that time President of KED and later president of EPO, about the game which will be refereed by Mr. Mantalos, who seems to be very cooperative and familiar with his two interlocutors.
The prosecutor’s investigation demonstrates that V. Marinakis is literally “omnipotent in the Greek football” and has the ability “to guide KED’s president on appointing referees for other matches, except the ones of his own team”. Precisely, willing to promote Platanias to join the Super League for the first time and gain an additional income (3 million Euros instead of 200,000 Euros in the Football League), as the magistrate states, he asked the preference and appointment of Mr. Mantalos in the match Kallithea vs Panachaiki , two teams which were competing with Platanias for their ascent to the League, helping this way indirectly Platanias. So V. Marinakis requested the appointment of Mr. Mantalos in a specific competition that did not concern his own team, as this was evidenced by the investigation, showing that in the best case he wanted to intervene in the match and in the worst one, that he was having referee Mantalos under his command.
Furthermore, we are obliged to underline the deficiency of this referee. Mr. Mantalos has “donated” a penalty to Olympiakos (along with the expulsion of the opponent goalkeeper) in the game against Kalloni in Lesbos and of course the scandalous expulsion of Panathinaikos’ captain, Carlos Zeka, during the match against Xanthi, depriving him from participating in the critical quarterfinals for the Greek Cup against Atromitos, causing an intense verbal protest by the Club’s president, Mr. Yiannis Alafouzos.
For FC PANATHINAIKOS
Ioannis Alafouzos
President of the Board
