Days after the owner of PAOK FC, Ivan Savvidis, was charged with disciplinary violations for entering the field carrying a gun, during a football game, the Russian-Greek tycoon’s name was implicated in a long-standing case of arson.

On Monday, the sports television program ‘I Diki’ (‘The Trial’), broadcast on SKAI TV, revealed that Ivan Savvidi’s DIMERA company had issued an hotel invoice paying for the stay of individuals who were involved in cases of extorsion and arsonry.

The first case involved the incident that took place on 30 August 2015, in the city of Xanthi, in Northeast Macedonia, when four individuals entered the parking lot the “La Challe” Hotel, with the purpose of torching the automobile of Razvan Lucescu, a football coach currently managing PAOK FC, who at the time was the coach of Xanthi FC. The arsonists mistakenly targeted the car of the coach’s cousin, Dragos Lucescu, as it was the only one with Romanian license plates.

The other case, involves three members of the same ring, who set fire to an automobile belonging to sports agent Yannis Evangelopoulos’ wife. Two of Evangelopoulos’ clients, Yannis Tzandaris and Ergys Kace, were targeted by PAOK, the former opting to accept an offer from Olympiakos FC and the latter refusing to renew his contract with PAOK.

Both cases were delt with by the Extortion department of the Thessaloniki Police, and were linked with a criminal organisation led by Grant Agatzanian, who is serving time in the Trikala prison. The Thessaloniki police had declared a PAOK FC employee, Spyros Milioridis, as a person of interest in this case. The former PAOK FC Board member, in charge of the team’s fan clubs, was recorded in phone conversations with another person of interest, Edgar Eritsyan. The latter’s hotel bills, during his stay in Athens at the time of the arson attack against Evangelopoulos, were the subject of the SKAI TV program on Monday.

The program revealed that the tourist agent who made the reservations made a sworn testimony, that the initial invoice was initially paid by PAOK FC, but the invoice was subsequently canceled and another one was reissued, this time by DIMERA.

“On the morning of 25 September, 2015, I received a telephone call for the owner of the agency […] in order to make a reservation for a room with three beds, which would be occupied by three individuals,” reads the agent’s testimony.
“Because it was difficult for me to find such a room, I made a reservation at the “Athens Habitat” hotel. The reservation was made in the name Edgar Eritsyan and involved a one-night stay, and the occupants were to depart on 26 September, 2015, as they indeed did. On the morning of 15 October, 2015, I again received a telephone call from Mr. […] , in order to again make a reservation in the same name, Eritsyan.

This time, however, the reservation was for two persons, and for a two-night stay. In other words, the occupants of the room were to depart on 15 October, 2015, as they did. Once again, I made the reservation for the clients at the Athens Habitat hotel, because its location suited them. The invoices for the aforementioned stay of our clients were initially issued for PAOK FC. However, they were canceled, for reasons which I cannot recall, and new invoices were issued for the same stay, in the name of the Dimera Company, which paid the bill.”

This revelation links the Russian-Greek billionaire with an extortion ring targeted by the Greek police, raising many questions about the state of Football in Greece. However, despite the fact that the prosecutors are believed to have building a strong case, with the relevant file containing crucial evidence, no charges have been filed yet.

Moreover, the file has not been sent to the competent Athletics Prosecutor, as is the usual process, and the whole case had not been made public, up until this week.