Greek basketball has lost its top official to a match-fixing scandal. Vangelis Liolios, who heads the national federation EOK, said on Sunday morning that he is pulling out of the game entirely while prosecutors pursue him. He told the magistrate in Athens that he wanted the sport to keep working without him.
In total, 49 matches from a ten-year span ending this season are under review. The net is cast unusually wide: top-flight fixtures sit next to lower-division games and even youth and school tournaments. The suspicion is that cash or favours went to officials on court, to players and to club staff so that results could be bent, in part to cash in on betting markets at home and abroad.
Liolios testified alongside Giorgos Mavraganis, a confidant with no official federation role; both had been given extra days to prepare. Each denies taking part in bribery or fixing. Their defence says nothing in the file ties them to rigged games and that leaked fragments of chats paint a distorted picture. Once the hearings end, a judge and a prosecutor will rule on whether the two stay free pending trial.
One suspect is already behind bars. Ex-referee Petros Papapetrou was jailed on remand on Friday; police are said to have discovered roughly €820,000 stashed at his house. He insists it is a quarter-century of savings from officiating, a public forestry job and selling family land, and an appeal is planned. More referees are due before the magistrate on Monday.
Financial investigators are also tracing the defendants’ wealth and have begun looking at other pro sports, with football first in line. Meanwhile the EOK board is holding two sessions every day just to keep competitions on schedule.
