Match-fixing scandal deepens

The "Calciopoulos" scandal of alleged match-fixing is growing. On Thursday Olympiakos Volou owner Achilleas Beos countered accusations against him, suggesting that the recorded material lawyer Alexis Kougias had produced a day earlier was the product of creative editing instigated by former Panathinaikos president Nikolas Pateras.

A little later, however, Kougias revealed on a radio interview that the most revealing recordings are not those he has publicised, but another one involving "the heads of the sport in Greece, talking about [referee Giorgos] Daloukas". The developments brought about the intervention of no less a figure than the Prime Minister, as George Papandreou reportedly spoke to Culture Minister Pavlos Geroulanos and Justice Minister Haris Kastanidis on Thursday asking them to put an end to this story that is dogging the Greek game. Speaking at press conference, Beos denied almost everything included in one of the two the recordings that Kougias revealed, regarding the Aris vs Panathinaikos Super League match, while avoiding to comment on what the other recording suggested, concerning the Maccabi Tel Aviv vs Olympiakos Europa League game.

"The recordings they have presented would not have been accepted even in Tanzania. I am already laughing. How can a serious state take fake recordings into account?" wondered Beos, referring to the investigation a prosecutor has already started, with Kougias submitting some of the recordings to him. Beos suggested that Pateras wanted to avenge him because Pateras failed where Beos had "excelled, in becoming a successful club president" as he said, and accused him of being the one to record his voice secretly and then edit the CDs in such a way that they would make Beos appear to say things he never said.

"Football has no need of people like Pateras, but of people with masculinity," thundered Beos, who also suggested that Greece's Financial Crimes Squad, whom he called "suckers", is after him and Olympiakos Volou because its head, Yiannis Kapeleris is a friend of Pateras. The strongman of Olympiakos Volou denied he had a hand in the appointment of Daloukas to the game between Aris and Panathinaikos or that he called him on the phone at half-time, as Kougias had suggested, but admitted he did call the Volos-born referee after the match. Beos went on to ask for the prosecutor to look into the classified data of phone calls between himself, Daloukas and Pateras, arguing that it was Pateras, the then head of Panathinaikos, who called Daloukas before the game in Thessaloniki last September. Daloukas, whom Olympiakos president Vangelis Marinakis was according to the recordings intending to approach to offer him 200,000 euros, said on a radio interview on Wednesday: "I resisted pressure from both sides".

Kougias stated on another radio interview that Daloukas was the object of the conversation between the top two officials of Greek football, possibly meaning the head of the federation, Sofoklis Pilavios and that of the Super League and Olympiakos, Marinakis. Pateras responded later on Thursday with a statement suggesting that "Beos is such a bad script writer, apart from a very successful club official.

I repeat that I have never given out any recordings as I have never had any. As for his slander against me, he will have to prove it at the prosecutor." On Friday, Kougias, Daloukas and former referee Sotiris Vorgias will testify at the prosecutor investigating the Calciopoulos scandal, Greece's answer to Italy's Calciopoli in 2006 that saw Juventus get stripped of two championship titles and relegated to the second division.