Avgenakis: “Super League 2 should stop the blackmail and return to the stadiums”

Lefteris Avgenakis, in his speech in Parliament today, referred to topical issues from MPs Evangelia Liakoulis and Kostas Markos, referring to the problem that has arisen with Super League 2 and the suspension of its operation due to the disagreement with the money they receive the teams from the Taxation of the bet. The deputy sports minister stressed that it was time for logic to prevail and for them to return to the stadiums.

“From Super League 2, we expect to change its extortionate and fruitless attitude, return teams to competitive activities, and then continue our dialogue.

In addition, we are also exploring all ways to uphold and protect the rights of players and workers in SL2 federations should Super League 2’s irrational behavior persist. In Super League 2, logic must prevail and not extremes and tactics,” stressed the Deputy Minister of Sports, explaining all the aspects and details of the two meetings (23 1 and SuperLeague 2), basketball (ESAKE) and volleyball (ESAP).

Mr. Avgenakis referred to the parameters taken into account such as:

• Sports societies that submit the required guarantee statement and have not secured the required participation certificate in their league from the Professional Sports Committee (such as Apollon Larisas and Herodotos in SL2).

• No funds will be paid to sports companies involved in reporting to the National Sports Integrity Platform for their possible participation in rigged games until EPATHLA issues a finding.
  As the finding will be forwarded to the sports authorities for further investigation of the case, the suspension of funding will remain in place until the relevant bodies have made a decision.

The Assistant Secretary of Sport announced that “For the current competitive season, EPATHLA has already received 13 reports of possible game manipulation in SL2 and one for a Basket League game.
11 out of 13 SL2 match reports have already been evaluated by EPATHLA and for two of these matches its result will be released for further investigation by the Sport Prosecutor and the EPO Disciplinary Body.
Likewise, for one basketball game, a decision was issued for further investigation by the Sports Prosecutor’s Office and the Disciplinary Body of the EWG.

In addition, Mr. Avgenakis pointed out that for the distribution of the amounts attributable to the leagues, everyone has been informed that they are now also taken into account:

• The details of their participation in the turnover of the betting companies.

• Decision 600 of 7^her October 2021, which has been extended to October 2022, by the Gaming Supervision and Control Commission for Imposition of Permissible Betting Limits SL2, with very small amounts per person.
  EEEP participates in EPATHLA. (together with the Sports Prosecutor, the National Transparency Authority, the Hellenic Sports Authority and the Deputy Ministry of Sports) and have closely monitored the “dangerous” (as it has been described) SL2 league.

• The income from the European participations obtained by the international federations, depending on the sport, but also the number of participating teams in the championships, where in some places they are in excess (as in SL2, where 30 PAEs participate) and at others lack them (as in the Men’s VolleyLeague with only 10 groups).

The deputy sports minister stressed that “expecting everyone to return to the discussions within 48 hours to reach a final agreement, Super League 2 suddenly decided to stop the league, with wild demands and imaginary demands for owed ones.” Amounts that do not arise anywhere.
More precisely, in their official announcement, they ask for 8-8.5 million euros!
Reference is made to the AMLA 2021 which referred to the payout at the time and which describes the MAXIMUM amount that can be awarded to a category as long as the earnings from the bet reach or exceed €100 million!
It says “up to” the KYA, which doesn’t affect that distribution.”

At the same time, Mr. Avgenakis added that “the misleading announcement about the suspension of SL2 does not mention that they agree to the exceptions for funding groups that do not meet the criteria as analyzed”.

“We have been working hard to ensure that the 62.7 million euros will be distributed to all other professional and amateur sports over the next few days,” concluded the Deputy Sports Minister and went into detail about the amounts that each team in SuperLeague 1 , the BasketLeague and VolleyLeague, but also amateur sports (the 5,742 amateur clubs registered in the 2022 register, the 340 clubs of the national categories men and women, our national teams of all sports and all ages, etc.)‘ said Lefteris Avgenakis, among others, in his speech.