A few hours after Panathinaikos was eliminated by Olympiakos in the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, Erasitheni President Panagiotis Malakates took responsibility for the exclusion, stressing that it was a mistake not to play the match at OAKA, he referred to that , what happened on Wednesday and explained why Thursday’s game took place without the presence of Panathinaikos’ friends.

Characteristically, in his written statement, he said:

“Yesterday was a very important day and unfortunately, instead of evolving into a celebration of sport, we faced an unprovoked and logical onslaught from the police, who unfortunately once again failed in the role assigned to them, the people and behavior of the to protect match.

Even more so when it comes to a semi-final match in a European competition.

I take full responsibility for what happened and once again I apologize to our fans who were unnecessarily hurt and for the inconvenience caused to everyone else.

We have asked for responsibilities and we will continue to ask until they are given.

While our original intention was to go to OAKA for a large number of our fans to see, and with a corresponding financial benefit, with a venue announcement deadline on the Monday before the first game, we decided to close the game play in the stadium that we know and we train for purely competitive reasons.

Maybe it was my fault and I take responsibility.

This time we prevented a repeat of what happened at a previous game where season tickets and ticket holders were left out by not issuing tickets, allowing only season ticket holders and our sponsors entry.

However, unintentionally, sad events happened yesterday and it is my responsibility that we did not manage to prevent them, because someone always has to be responsible and I, as President of Panathinaikos, take full responsibility.

That tonight’s match was played behind closed doors was the decision of the European Confederation, who deemed the semi-final series a high risk and had ordered that in both games, the very least that would happen was that the stadium would be evacuated to allow play to continue. If for some reason it is not possible to repeat the next day behind closed doors.

We all know how the European authorities work in such situations and simply with the deadline for staging the game yesterday, after telephone communication with the European federation, the commissioner informed us that today’s game will be played behind closed doors, and we simply decided on our part at the time of the game based on the stadium’s schedule.

Our refusal would result in us being annulled and potentially banned from European competitions for two years.

People, teams and administration must be united for the federation to grow, which has happened so far and has given us 7 titles in the most famous team sports and countless awards in recent years.

It is my obligation and my duty to raise my head, all together to continue on the road to success and, moreover, to find the ways, the measures and what is necessary so that such situations that make me sad do not occur again and to protect the interests of Panathinaikos and in this plane.

An apology is never enough, but I owe it and I mean everyone. However, life and sporting endeavors go on and we will try, as we have to this day, to claim and win titles.

Takis Malakas”.