Harsh fines and suspensions after the second round of the Greek final

The tense development of the finals of the greek league has led to a severe off-field scenario. After the incidents that occurred on June 5 during the second game of the series played at the Telekom Center Athens —in which the Panathinaikos was imposed by 68-58—, the disciplinary authorities have made public a battery of forceful financial and sporting sanctions that affect both the clubs and several of their main representatives.

He Olympiacos He leads the series 2-1 after his 102-92 victory this Monday.

One of the most significant decisions is the one-month suspension imposed on the owner of the PanathinaikosDimitris Giannakopouloswho will be prohibited from entering the basketball halls during this crucial period of the season. Giannakopouloswho during the match entered the court to confront the referees and interrupted the game, must also pay a personal fine of 30,000 euros and has received a severe written warning. On the part of the Olympiacosits CEO, Nikolaos Lepeniotisfaces a similar punishment: a month of disqualification from accessing sports venues and a fine of 20,000 euros for actions that the authorities considered harmful to the image of sport.

He Panathinaikosin addition to the individual sanction to its owner, assumes notable economic damage at an institutional level. The club has been fined 3,000 euros due to the offensive chants of its fans, sung repeatedly during the Greek national anthem and also directed towards the president of the club. Helena Basketball FederationVangelis Liolios; the rival coach, Georgios Bartzokas; manager Nikos Lepeniotis; and politicians Nikos Hardalias and Kyriakos Mitsotakis (prime minister of the country). Likewise, a penalty of 1,000 euros has been applied to them for incidents inside the venue but outside the playing court, and an additional fine of 44,000 euros linked directly to Giannakopoulos’ conduct. With all this, the total sanctions related to the green entity amounts to 78,000 euros.

On the side of Olympiacosthe disciplinary landscape is equally complex. His coach, Georgios Bartzokashas received a severe written reprimand and a fine of 10,000 euros for damaging the reputation of the sport. Although the coach remains available to lead the team, the resolution requires him to publicly retract statements considered defamatory and to issue an apology within one day of the publication of the ruling. At the corporate level, Olympiacos has been fined 30,000 euros for the actions of Bartzokas and another 50,000 euros for those of Lepeniotis, adding 80,000 euros in fines to the club. In this way, the sum of the penalties associated with the entity of Piraeus reaches 110,000 euros.

These drastic disciplinary measures introduce even more tension to a final series of maximum rivalry, depriving both delegations of the presence of important managers in the boxes and leaving a strong economic impact on the coffers of the two Greek basketball giants.