The Hellenic Football Federation (EPO) announced sweeping changes late last week with the removal of manager Sergio Markarian, as well as his assistants Roland Marcenaro and Nikos Costenoglou, and national team director Yiorgos Karagounis.
The decision to part with Markarian, Marcenaro and Costenoglou was reportedly agreed to by mutual consent, but Karagounis, Greece’s most capped player, is said to be a sticking point with the organisation, with the EPO stating his contract was terminated for an unspecified “significant reason”.
The former national captain accused the EPO of showing no respect throughout the process.
“The most striking thing is that since all of this first started, I have kept seeing my professional dignity being tarnished in the media and nobody [from the EPO] has bothered to contact me to tell me anything,” Karagounis told Greece’s Sport FM.
“This is not consistent with my behaviour over the years, especially towards the national team that I’ve served for 24 years. They should respect all these years that I’ve been involved.
“It’s so bad to let rumours and heresy continue with so many lies being bandied about and nobody responding to them.”
Greece’s Under-21 coach Costas Tsanas will stand in as caretaker manager until a permanent replacement is found. Greece has four Euro 2016 qualifiers remaining, with the next on September 4 against Finland in Piraeus, and sits last in its group on two points.