Super League 2: Full steam ahead for 36 club and second team rebuild

As everything shows, with the merger of the Football League and the formation of second teams in a league of 36 teams from the new season in two groups, we are going full throttle for the restructuring in the Super League 2.

At least that’s what emerged from the conference call the Deputy Minister for Sport had on Thursday afternoon with the 31 Super League 2 and Football League teams (only AEL, which is not yet a member of SL2, were missing), where the aRestructuring with very strict criteria and rules, the creation of B teams, the immediate promotion of €1.55 million to the Football League from the bet and the full implementation of the holistic study and the new framework for football coaches.

The Secretary of State saw that very few groups (Levadiakos and Trikala) reacted to what he told them, at least before him, when each representative took the floor and spoke for three minutes, raising objections, while it is typical that the President of the union Mr Leoutsakos welcomed what Avgenakis proposed despite the objections he had raised and prompted Olympiacos’ official response.

Also on the conference call was Super League President Leonidas Boutsikaris, who briefed the other teams on the general terms of the B teams of Olympiakos, PAOK, Panathinaikos and AEK and Volos.

The deputy sports minister mentioned:

The economic, competitive and developmental criteria of the forthcoming restructuring of the two professional groups into one with the merger of SL2 and FL,

In the proposed positive and developmental plan for the creation of B-Teams of SL1 PAE that will participate in SL2, which was further explained by Mr. Boutsikaris,

Promoting professional and amateur sports through generous funding through the new type of gambling taxation,

In agreeing the provisions of the Holistic Study on State Obligations and the need for their full implementation by Football Associations,

In operating the National Platform for Sports Integrity regarding match manipulation,

In the changes of the institutional framework related to (and) the football coaches and Mr. Avgenakis stressed that “all these reforms emerge from democratic and collective processes, with full dialogue with stakeholders and not in their absence and without their knowledge”.

Both the President of SL2-FL, Leonidas Leoutsakos, and the vast majority of the Union’s PAE members (except Levadiakos and Trikala, who are reserved) agreed, praising both the evolving reforms (which call for strict criteria) and also the important one through financing the taxation of betting winnings.

In fact, the Secretary of State for Sport told Football League teams that they would immediately receive €77,500 each (€1,550,000 in total) in advance, as was recently the case with the other categories of professional sport in football, basketball and volleyball with totals 29.2 million euros strengthened.

Regarding the forthcoming restructuring of the two professional categories into one, with the merger of SL2 and FL, Mr. Avgenakis showed the need for sustainability, reliability, competitiveness and quality to replace the existing distorted situation imposed by his predecessor two years ago became, with strong PAE that have a share capital of at least €250,000 (instead of €30,000), but with the intention of further increasing it,

can submit a guarantee to ESA for at least €100,000 (instead of €15,000),

at least half of their players, who will be named on the match sheet, must meet the conditions for participation in a Greek national team of any age group,

have a minimum 3-year contract for central television rights management and

should prepare a three-year plan with similar relegations and promotions so that from the 2024-2025 season, including teams B’, they do not exceed the number of 18 teams agreed for the restructuring in the working group set up months ago with representatives of the EPO , SL2 – FL and Department of State.

In addition, the Deputy Minister of Sports noted that the draft law on voting

The degrees of SEFAA graduates with a major in football are automatically considered equivalent to UEFA B-level football coaching diplomas their further development is carried out by the UEFA EPO coaching schools with a 50% discount for the UEFA A diploma and with full payment of tuition fees for the UEFA Pro diploma.

The degrees in the football coaching diplomas and the resulting professional rights are those provided for in the UEFA coaching contract as incorporated into the EPO coaching regulations and implements the holistic study in this area as well,

Graduates of the EPO faculties with at least UEFA B level and above can obtain a professional permit from the GGA.